Black hole binaries and light fields: Gravitational molecules

Abstract

We show that light scalars can form quasi-bound states around binaries. In the non-relativistic regime, these states are formally described by the quantum-mechanical Schrödinger equation for a one-electron heteronuclear diatomic molecule. We performed extensive numerical simulations of scalar fields around black hole binaries showing that a scalar structure condensates around the binary -we dub these states "gravitational molecules". We further show that these are well-described by the perturbative, non-relativistic description.

Growth of accretion driven scalar hair around Kerr black holes

“…It may also shed light on the end state of the scalar field around the remnant of a binary merger. The interaction of minimally coupled light bosonic fields with compact binaries has been examined in analytic and numerical studies by a number of authors [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. As pointed out in [36], in the limit of high scalar masses, the configurations we study correspond to the dark matter spikes of [61] for which the dephasing of the gravitational wave signal has recently been studied in [62].…”