Darkness Visible: N-Body Simulations of Dark Matter Spikes in Hernquist Haloes

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Main Authors: Kamermans, Jasper Leonora P. D., Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Kamermans, Jasper Leonora P. D.
Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
author_facet Kamermans, Jasper Leonora P. D.
Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
contents Dark matter is theorised to form massive haloes, which could be further condensed into so-called spikes when a black hole grows at the centre of such a halo. The existence of these spikes is instrumental for several dark matter detection schemes such as indirect detection and imprints on gravitational wave inspirals, but all previous work on their formation has been (semi-)analytical. We present fully numerically simulated cold dark matter spikes using the SWIFT code. Based on these results, we propose a simple empirical density profile - dependent on only a single mass-ratio parameter between the black hole and total mass - for dark matter spikes grown in Hernquist profiles. We find that the radius of the spike scales differently compared to theoretical predictions, and show a depletion of the outer halo that is significant for high mass-ratio systems. We critically assess approximations of the spike as used in the field, show that our profile significantly deviates, and contextualise the potential influence for future dark matter detections by simulating binary black hole inspirals embedded in our profile.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_12007
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Darkness Visible: N-Body Simulations of Dark Matter Spikes in Hernquist Haloes
Kamermans, Jasper Leonora P. D.
Wierda, A. Renske A. C.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Dark matter is theorised to form massive haloes, which could be further condensed into so-called spikes when a black hole grows at the centre of such a halo. The existence of these spikes is instrumental for several dark matter detection schemes such as indirect detection and imprints on gravitational wave inspirals, but all previous work on their formation has been (semi-)analytical. We present fully numerically simulated cold dark matter spikes using the SWIFT code. Based on these results, we propose a simple empirical density profile - dependent on only a single mass-ratio parameter between the black hole and total mass - for dark matter spikes grown in Hernquist profiles. We find that the radius of the spike scales differently compared to theoretical predictions, and show a depletion of the outer halo that is significant for high mass-ratio systems. We critically assess approximations of the spike as used in the field, show that our profile significantly deviates, and contextualise the potential influence for future dark matter detections by simulating binary black hole inspirals embedded in our profile.
title Darkness Visible: N-Body Simulations of Dark Matter Spikes in Hernquist Haloes
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12007