A relativistic treatment of accretion disk torques on extreme mass-ratio inspirals around non-spinning black holes

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Hauptverfasser: R., Abhishek Hegade K., Gammie, Charles F., Yunes, Nicolás
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author R., Abhishek Hegade K.
Gammie, Charles F.
Yunes, Nicolás
author_facet R., Abhishek Hegade K.
Gammie, Charles F.
Yunes, Nicolás
contents We develop a relativistically accurate formalism to model the interaction between stellar mass compact objects embedded in thin accretion disks around a non-spinning supermassive black hole, using tools from self-force theory and Hamiltonian perturbation theory. We then apply this formalism to analyze the evolution of a compact object on a nearly circular and equatorial orbit interacting with a thin equatorial disk. We provide analytic and relativistically-accurate expressions for the rates of energy and angular momentum exchanged during interactions due to Lindblad and corotation resonances. Our results show that relativistic corrections can enhance the magnitude of the torque by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to purely Newtonian expressions when the orbit of the compact object is smaller than $10$ Schwarzschild radii of the supermassive black hole. We also demonstrate that strong relativistic shifts the inner Lindblad resonances closer to the compact object than the outer Lindblad resonances when the compact object is closer than 4 Schwarzschild radii to the supermassive black hole, potentially leading to a reversal in the direction of the torque acting on the compact object. Finally, we provide a dephasing estimate and show that using the relativistic torque formula is crucial to obtain reliable estimates for extreme mass ratio inspirals in orbits closer than 5 Schwarzschild radii to the supermassive black hole. Our results highlight the importance of using relativistically-accurate models of environmental interactions in extreme mass-ratio inspirals close to a supermassive black hole.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_20457
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A relativistic treatment of accretion disk torques on extreme mass-ratio inspirals around non-spinning black holes
R., Abhishek Hegade K.
Gammie, Charles F.
Yunes, Nicolás
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
We develop a relativistically accurate formalism to model the interaction between stellar mass compact objects embedded in thin accretion disks around a non-spinning supermassive black hole, using tools from self-force theory and Hamiltonian perturbation theory. We then apply this formalism to analyze the evolution of a compact object on a nearly circular and equatorial orbit interacting with a thin equatorial disk. We provide analytic and relativistically-accurate expressions for the rates of energy and angular momentum exchanged during interactions due to Lindblad and corotation resonances. Our results show that relativistic corrections can enhance the magnitude of the torque by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to purely Newtonian expressions when the orbit of the compact object is smaller than $10$ Schwarzschild radii of the supermassive black hole. We also demonstrate that strong relativistic shifts the inner Lindblad resonances closer to the compact object than the outer Lindblad resonances when the compact object is closer than 4 Schwarzschild radii to the supermassive black hole, potentially leading to a reversal in the direction of the torque acting on the compact object. Finally, we provide a dephasing estimate and show that using the relativistic torque formula is crucial to obtain reliable estimates for extreme mass ratio inspirals in orbits closer than 5 Schwarzschild radii to the supermassive black hole. Our results highlight the importance of using relativistically-accurate models of environmental interactions in extreme mass-ratio inspirals close to a supermassive black hole.
title A relativistic treatment of accretion disk torques on extreme mass-ratio inspirals around non-spinning black holes
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20457