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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chan, Man Ho, Lee, Chak Man
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03751
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author Chan, Man Ho
Lee, Chak Man
author_facet Chan, Man Ho
Lee, Chak Man
contents Black hole dynamics suggests that dark matter would re-distribute near a supermassive black hole to form a density spike. However, no direct evidence of dark matter density spike around a supermassive black hole has been identified. In this letter, we present the first robust evidence showing a dark matter density spike around a supermassive black hole. We revisit the data of the well-known supermassive black hole binary OJ 287 and show that the inclusion of the dynamical friction due to a dark matter density spike around the supermassive black hole can satisfactorily account for the observed orbital decay rate. The derived spike index $γ_{\rm sp}=2.351^{+0.032}_{-0.045}$ gives an excellent agreement with the value $γ_{\rm sp}=2.333$ predicted by the benchmark model assuming an adiabatically growing supermassive black hole. This provides a strong verification of the canonical theory suggested two decades ago modeling the gravitational interaction between collisionless dark matter and supermassive black holes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_03751
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The first robust evidence showing a dark matter density spike around the supermassive black hole in OJ 287
Chan, Man Ho
Lee, Chak Man
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Black hole dynamics suggests that dark matter would re-distribute near a supermassive black hole to form a density spike. However, no direct evidence of dark matter density spike around a supermassive black hole has been identified. In this letter, we present the first robust evidence showing a dark matter density spike around a supermassive black hole. We revisit the data of the well-known supermassive black hole binary OJ 287 and show that the inclusion of the dynamical friction due to a dark matter density spike around the supermassive black hole can satisfactorily account for the observed orbital decay rate. The derived spike index $γ_{\rm sp}=2.351^{+0.032}_{-0.045}$ gives an excellent agreement with the value $γ_{\rm sp}=2.333$ predicted by the benchmark model assuming an adiabatically growing supermassive black hole. This provides a strong verification of the canonical theory suggested two decades ago modeling the gravitational interaction between collisionless dark matter and supermassive black holes.
title The first robust evidence showing a dark matter density spike around the supermassive black hole in OJ 287
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03751