We present a systematic study of the dynamics and gravitational-wave emission of head-on collisions of spinning vector boson stars, known as Proca stars. To this aim we build a catalog of about 800 numerical-relativity simulations of such systems. We find that the wavelike nature of bosonic stars has a large impact on the gravitational-wave emission. In particular, we show that the initial relative phase Δϵ ¼ ϵ 1 − ϵ 2 of the two complex fields forming the stars (or, equivalently, the relative phase at merger) strongly impacts both the emitted gravitational-wave energy and the corresponding mode structure. This leads to a nonmonotonic dependence of the emission on the frequency of the secondary star ω 2 , for fixed frequency ω 1 of the primary. This phenomenology, which has not been found for the case of black-hole mergers, reflects the distinct ability of the Proca field to interact with itself in both constructive and destructive manners. We postulate this may serve as a smoking gun to shed light on the possible existence of these objects.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.