Impact of relativistic corrections on the detectability of dark-matter spikes with gravitational waves

Nicholas Speeney, Andrea Antonelli, Vishal Baibhav, and Emanuele Berti
Phys. Rev. D 106, 044027 – Published 11 August 2022

Abstract

Black holes located within a dark matter cloud can create overdensity regions known as dark matter spikes. The presence of spikes modifies the gravitational-wave signals from binary systems through changes in the gravitational potential or dynamical friction effects. We assess the importance of including relativistic effects in both the dark matter distribution and the dynamical friction. As a first step we numerically calculate the particle dark matter spike distribution in full general relativity, using both Hernquist and Navarro-Frenk-White profiles in a Schwarzschild background, and we produce analytical fits to the spike profiles for a large range of scale parameters. Then we use a post-Newtonian prescription for the gravitational-wave dephasing to estimate the effect of relativistic corrections to the spike profile and to the dynamical friction. Finally we include the torques generated by dynamical friction in fast-to-generate relativistic models for circular extreme mass-ratio inspirals around a nonspinning black hole. We find that both types of relativistic corrections positively impact the detectability of dark matter effects, leading to higher dephasings and mismatches between gravitational-wave signals with and without dark matter spikes.

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  • Received 9 May 2022
  • Accepted 26 July 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.044027

© 2022 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Nicholas Speeney1,*, Andrea Antonelli1,†, Vishal Baibhav2,‡, and Emanuele Berti1,§

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
  • 2Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 1800 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois 60201, USA

  • *nspeene1@jhu.edu
  • aantone3@jhu.edu
  • vishal.baibhav@northwestern.edu
  • §berti@jhu.edu

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Issue

Vol. 106, Iss. 4 — 15 August 2022

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