Optical images of massive boson stars with nonlinear electrodynamics

Abstract This study investigates the optical imaging characteristics of massive boson stars based on the Einstein–Klein–Gordon theory coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics. Under asymptotically flat boundary conditions, the field equations are solved numerically to obtain the spacetime metric of the massive boson stars. Employing the ray-tracing method, we analyze the optical images of the massive boson stars under two illumination conditions: a celestial light source and a thin accretion disk. The research reveals that the configurations and optical images of the massive boson stars can be tuned via the initial parameter $$\phi _0$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>ϕ</mml:mi> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:math> and the coupling constant $$\Lambda $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi> </mml:math> . The absence of the event horizon in the massive boson stars results in distinct optical image characteristics compared to those of black holes.