Constraining Self-interacting Scalar Field Dark Matter From the Black Hole Shadow of the Event Horizon Telescope

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gómez, Gabriel, Valageas, Patrick
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Gómez, Gabriel
Valageas, Patrick
author_facet Gómez, Gabriel
Valageas, Patrick
contents An exciting possibility to constrain dark matter (DM) scenarios is to search for their gravitational imprints on Black Hole (BH) observations. In this paper, we investigate the impact of self-interacting scalar field DM on the shadow radius of a Schwarzschild BH. We implement a self-consistent formulation, paying attention to the enhancement of the DM density due to the BH gravitational influence and the accretion flow onto the BH. First, we calculate the first-order correction to the shadow radius caused by a general DM environment. Then, we apply this perturbative method to the case of self-interacting scalar field DM and derive analytical expressions for the critical impact parameter. We find that self-consistency requirements, involving the lifetime and the mass of the central DM soliton, or the mass and the size of the extended virialized DM halo, ensure that the impact of the DM environment on the shadow radius is below the observational upper bound. This emphasizes the importance of taking into account the self-consistency constraints of the underlying DM scenario, which can strongly limit the range of possible DM density profiles and their impact on the shadow radius.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_08988
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Constraining Self-interacting Scalar Field Dark Matter From the Black Hole Shadow of the Event Horizon Telescope
Gómez, Gabriel
Valageas, Patrick
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
An exciting possibility to constrain dark matter (DM) scenarios is to search for their gravitational imprints on Black Hole (BH) observations. In this paper, we investigate the impact of self-interacting scalar field DM on the shadow radius of a Schwarzschild BH. We implement a self-consistent formulation, paying attention to the enhancement of the DM density due to the BH gravitational influence and the accretion flow onto the BH. First, we calculate the first-order correction to the shadow radius caused by a general DM environment. Then, we apply this perturbative method to the case of self-interacting scalar field DM and derive analytical expressions for the critical impact parameter. We find that self-consistency requirements, involving the lifetime and the mass of the central DM soliton, or the mass and the size of the extended virialized DM halo, ensure that the impact of the DM environment on the shadow radius is below the observational upper bound. This emphasizes the importance of taking into account the self-consistency constraints of the underlying DM scenario, which can strongly limit the range of possible DM density profiles and their impact on the shadow radius.
title Constraining Self-interacting Scalar Field Dark Matter From the Black Hole Shadow of the Event Horizon Telescope
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.08988