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arXiv · 2402.13053

Sharpening the dark matter signature in gravitational waveforms I: Accretion and eccentricity evolution

Theophanes K. Karydas·Bradley J. Kavanagh·Gianfranco Bertone
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Abstract

Dark matter overdensities around black holes can alter the dynamical evolution of a companion object orbiting around it, and cause a dephasing of the gravitational waveform. Here, we present a refined calculation of the co-evolution of the binary and the dark matter distribution, taking into account the accretion of dark matter particles on the companion black hole, and generalizing previous quasi-circular calculations to the general case of eccentric orbits. These calculations are validated by dedicated N-body simulations. We show that accretion can lead to a large dephasing, and therefore cannot be neglected in general. We also demonstrate that dark matter spikes tend to circularize eccentric orbits faster than previously thought.

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Theophanes K. Karydas, Bradley J. Kavanagh, Gianfranco Bertone. 2024-02-20. Sharpening the dark matter signature in gravitational waveforms I: Accretion and eccentricity evolution. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.063070

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