Relativistic drag forces on black holes from scalar dark matter clouds of all sizes

Traykova, Dina; Vicente, Rodrigo; Clough, Katy; Helfer, Thomas; Berti, Emanuele; Ferreira, Pedro G.; Hui, Lam

doi:10.1103/physrevd.108.l121502

Cited by 16 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Fixed background simulations provide a first order (in the density) estimate of the gravitational effects caused by the matter, taking into account their relativistic behaviour. This is discussed further in Clough (2021) and some examples using the approach are Bamber et al ( 2021), Traykova et al (2021) and Traykova et al (2023).…”

Section: Statement Of Needmentioning

confidence: 99%

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GRDzhadzha: A code for evolving relativistic matter on analytic metric backgrounds

Aurrekoetxea,

Bamber,

Brady

et al. 2024

JOSS

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Strong gravity environments such as those around black holes provide us with unique opportunities to study questions in fundamental physics (see e.g Barack et al., 2019;Barausse et al., 2015;Bertone et al., 2020;Macedo et al., 2013), such as the existence and properties of dark matter and dark energy. Characterising the behaviour of new fields and other types of matter in highly relativistic environments usually necessitates numerical simulations unless one imposes significant symmetries. Therefore we need to turn to numerical methods to study the dynamics and evolution of the complex systems of black holes and other compact objects in different environments, using numerical relativity (NR). These methods allow us to split the four-dimensional Einstein equations into three-dimensional spatial hypersurfaces and a time-like direction. Then if a solution is known at the initial spatial hypersurface, it can be numerically evolved in time, where an analytic solution no longer exists. Whilst the tools of NR provide the most complete (i.e., approximation free) method for evolving matter in such environments, in many cases of interest, the density of the matter components is negligible in comparison to the curvature scales of the background spacetime metric (Clough, 2021). In such cases it is a reasonable approximation to neglect the backreaction of the matter environment onto the metric and treat it as fixed (assuming the background itself is stationary or otherwise has an analytic form).

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Section: Statement Of Needmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• Determining the relativistic drag forces on a Schwarzschild black hole moving through a cloud of scalar field dark matter (Traykova et al, 2021(Traykova et al, , 2023) (2023), in which the initial conditions were generated with a modified version of GRDzhadzha.…”

Section: Key Research Projects Using Grdzhadzhamentioning

confidence: 99%

GRDzhadzha: A code for evolving relativistic matter on analytic metric backgrounds

Aurrekoetxea,

Bamber,

Brady

et al. 2024

JOSS

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Dynamical friction from self-interacting dark matter

Fischer,

Sagunski

2024

A&A

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Merging compact objects such as binary black holes provide a promising probe for the physics of dark matter (DM). The gravitational waves emitted during inspiral potentially allow one to detect DM spikes around black holes. This is because the dynamical friction force experienced by the inspiralling black hole alters the orbital period and thus the gravitational wave signal. The dynamical friction arising from DM can potentially differ from the collisionless case when DM is subject to self-interactions. This paper aims to understand how self-interactions impact dynamical friction. To study the dynamical friction force, we use idealised $N$-body simulations, where we include self-interacting dark matter. We find that the dynamical friction force for inspiralling black holes would be typically enhanced by DM self-interactions compared to a collisionless medium (ignoring differences in the DM density). At lower velocities below the sound speed, we find that the dynamical friction force can be reduced by the presence of self-interactions. DM self-interactions have a significant effect on the dynamical friction for black hole mergers. Assuming the Chandrasekhar formula may underpredict the deceleration due to dynamical friction.

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Dynamical friction in gravitational atoms

Tomaselli

M.²,

Bertone

2023

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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Due to superradiant instabilities, clouds of ultralight bosons can spontaneously grow around rotating black holes, creating so-called “gravitational atoms”. In this work, we study their dynamical effects on binary systems. We first focus on open orbits, showing that the presence of a cloud can increase the cross section for the dynamical capture of a compact object by more than an order of magnitude. We then consider closed orbits and demonstrate that the backreaction of the cloud's ionization on the orbital motion should be identified as dynamical friction. Finally, we study for the first time eccentric and inclined orbits. We find that, while ionization quickly circularizes the binary, it barely affects the inclination angle. These results enable a more realistic description of the dynamics of gravitational atoms in binaries and pave the way for dedicated searches with future gravitational wave detectors.

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Relativistic drag forces on black holes from scalar dark matter clouds of all sizes

Cited by 16 publications

References 89 publications

GRDzhadzha: A code for evolving relativistic matter on analytic metric backgrounds

GRDzhadzha: A code for evolving relativistic matter on analytic metric backgrounds

Dynamical friction from self-interacting dark matter

Dynamical friction in gravitational atoms

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