Probing vector gravitational atoms with eccentric intermediate mass-ratio inspirals
Ultralight bosons, proposed as candidates for dark matter (DM), are predicted by various new physics models. In the presence of bosons with suitable masses, superradiant (SR) instability can naturally transform a spinning black hole (BH) into a gravitational atom (GA). Here we study the dynamics of intermediate mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs) around a GA formed by ultralight vector field saturated in its SR ground state. We employ a perturbative model at the leading Newtonian order to consistently account for both the conservative effect of cloud gravity and the dissipative effect of cloud ionization. We find the cloud can make a sizable negative contribution to the secular periastron precession at binary separations comparable to the gravitational Bohr radius. Meanwhile, the backreaction of ionization could significantly accelerate the process of orbital decay and circularization. Considering reasonably small vector boson masses, we examine the adiabatic orbital evolution and gravitational waveforms of eccentric inspirals. The results indicate that vector GAs might be detectable through observations of low-frequency IMRIs by the future space-based gravitational-wave detectors, such as LISA and Taiji.