Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03751 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Table of 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.