Narrowing the allowed mass range of ultralight bosons with the S2 star

Understand

It is well known that N-body simulations of ultralight bosons show the formation of a solitonic dark matter core in the innermost part of the halo.

• The scale length of such a soliton depends on the inverse of the mass of the boson.
• On the other hand, the orbital motion of stars in the Galactic Center depends on the distribution of matter whether be it baryonic or dark, providing an excellent probe for the gravitational field of the region.
• In this Letter we propose the S-stars in the Galactic Center as a new observational tool, complementary to other astrophysical systems, to narrow down the range of allowed values for an ultralight dark matter candidate boson mass.