Fundamental fields around compact objects: Massive spin-2 fields, Superradiant instabilities and Stars with dark matter cores

Understand

Fundamental bosonic fields of arbitrary spin are predicted by generic extensions of the Standard Model and of General Relativity, and are well-motivated candidates to explain the dark components of the Universe.

• One of most promising channels to look for their presence is through their gravitational interaction with compact objects.
• Within this context, in this thesis I study several mechanisms by which bosonic fields may affect the dynamics and structure of black holes and neutron stars.
• The first part of the thesis is devoted to the study of massive spin-2 fields around spherically symmetric black-hole spacetimes.