Dark Matter Mounds: towards a realistic description of dark matter overdensities around black holes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bertone, Gianfranco, Wierda, A. Renske A. C., Gaggero, Daniele, Kavanagh, Bradley J., Volonteri, Marta, Yoshida, Naoki
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bertone, Gianfranco
Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
Gaggero, Daniele
Kavanagh, Bradley J.
Volonteri, Marta
Yoshida, Naoki
author_facet Bertone, Gianfranco
Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
Gaggero, Daniele
Kavanagh, Bradley J.
Volonteri, Marta
Yoshida, Naoki
contents Dark matter overdensities around black holes can be searched for by looking at the characteristic imprint they leave on the gravitational waveform of binary black hole mergers. Current theoretical predictions of the density profile of dark matter overdensities are based on highly idealised formation scenarios, in which black holes are assumed to grow adiabatically from an infinitesimal seed to their final mass, compressing dark matter cusps at the center of galactic halos into very dense `spikes'. These scenarios were suitable for dark matter indirect detection studies, since annihilating dark matter cannot reach very high densities, but they fail to capture the dark matter distribution in the innermost regions where the gravitational wave signal is produced. We present here a more realistic formation scenario where black holes form from the collapse of supermassive stars, and follow the evolution of the dark matter density as the supermassive star grows and collapses to a black hole. We show that in this case dark matter forms shallower `mounds', instead of `spikes', on scales comparable with the size of the supermassive stars originating them. We discuss the implications for the detectability of these systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_08731
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dark Matter Mounds: towards a realistic description of dark matter overdensities around black holes
Bertone, Gianfranco
Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
Gaggero, Daniele
Kavanagh, Bradley J.
Volonteri, Marta
Yoshida, Naoki
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Dark matter overdensities around black holes can be searched for by looking at the characteristic imprint they leave on the gravitational waveform of binary black hole mergers. Current theoretical predictions of the density profile of dark matter overdensities are based on highly idealised formation scenarios, in which black holes are assumed to grow adiabatically from an infinitesimal seed to their final mass, compressing dark matter cusps at the center of galactic halos into very dense `spikes'. These scenarios were suitable for dark matter indirect detection studies, since annihilating dark matter cannot reach very high densities, but they fail to capture the dark matter distribution in the innermost regions where the gravitational wave signal is produced. We present here a more realistic formation scenario where black holes form from the collapse of supermassive stars, and follow the evolution of the dark matter density as the supermassive star grows and collapses to a black hole. We show that in this case dark matter forms shallower `mounds', instead of `spikes', on scales comparable with the size of the supermassive stars originating them. We discuss the implications for the detectability of these systems.
title Dark Matter Mounds: towards a realistic description of dark matter overdensities around black holes
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.08731