Physics

Investigating the impact of ultralight dark matter on gravitational wave signals

Inspiring extreme mass ratio binaries in a dark matter environment. The movement of a small black hole creates a dense wake, which slows it down and affects the gravitational wave signal. Credit: Beatriz Oliveira and Rodrigo Vicente.

A recent study published in Physical Review Letters investigated the effects of ultralight dark matter on extreme mass specific intake (EMRI), which could be useful for future space-based systems such as LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). It can be detected by gravitational wave detectors.

Given the large number of proposed forms of dark matter, scientists are investigating multiple approaches to detecting them.

This research focuses on understanding how ultralight dark matter behaves in the context of extreme mass specific inhalation techniques (EMRI). These systems consist of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and a smaller object, which may be a star or another black hole.

Gravitational waves emitted from these systems as smaller stellar bodies spiral into the SMBH may exhibit the behavior of ultralight dark matter in and around these systems.

Phys.org spoke to the study’s authors to better understand their research.

Commenting on the team’s motivation behind this study, Dr. Francisco Duque, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and lead author of the study, said: “Understanding the fundamental properties of dark matter” is one of humanity’s major unsolved problems.” modern physics.

“We know that galaxies must exist in order for them to form and evolve to their current state. But being dark means that they interact weakly with other particles in the Standard Model. It’s just a fancy way of saying that we have no idea what a galaxy is.

ultralight dark matter

Ultralight dark matter consists of low-mass dark matter particles modeled as scalar particles with no intrinsic spin. This creates a scalar field that is smoothly distributed in space, similar to the uniform distribution of temperature in a room.

This type of dark matter exists in many forms, including fuzzy dark matter and bosonic clouds. These particles can be up to 1028 times lighter than electrons.

Fuzzy dark matter does not clump together like traditional dark matter particles. Rather, due to the small mass of the particles, they exhibit large-scale wave-like behavior. On a small scale, fuzzy dark matter can influence the behavior of galactic structures.

On the other hand, a bosonic cloud exists around a rotating black hole. Bosonic clouds use the energy of the black hole to grow in size, and the energy is scattered instead of being absorbed by the black hole. This process is known as superradiation.

If any of these theoretical forms of ultralight dark matter are present in EMRI, it could alter the gravitational waves emitted by these systems.

relativistic approach

Previous studies have investigated the influence of the environment on EMRI, but they relied entirely on the Newtonian approximation. However, when dealing with extreme gravitational environments or high speeds (close to the speed of light), relativistic effects cannot be ignored.

The research team therefore decided to incorporate a fully relativistic framework to study the environment surrounding EMRI. Their aim was to use this framework to study the energy lost in EMRI due to scalar field depletion due to the interaction of inspiratory gravitational waves with a binary system.

Dr. Rodrigo Vicente, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics in Barcelona and co-author of the study, explains the findings: This wake, similar to the wake caused by a person swimming in a pool, exerts an additional gravitational pull, called kinetic friction, on the small black hole, slowing it down and changing its gravitational wave signal. ”

The density of ultralight dark matter clouds around SMBHs can be up to 20 times that of gold, highlighting the significant impact of ultralight dark matter on the evolution of EMRI and other similar systems.

LISA and future detection

Changes in gravitational wave signals due to ultralight dark matter could be detected on Earth by future detectors like LISA.

“LISA, scheduled to be launched by the European Space Agency in 2035, will be sensitive to millihertz frequencies, making observations possible,” said Dr. Caio Macedo, a professor at the Federal University of Pará and co-author of the study. He explained. High-precision EMRI can track these systems for weeks, months, or even years, making it ideal for observing phase shifts caused by kinetic friction that accumulate over many cycles. ”

However, if no such effects are seen, data from LISA can be used to place strict constraints on the existence of superoptical fields over a wide range of masses.

Beyond dark matter

In addition to dynamic friction effects, the researchers were also able to study how fuzzy dark matter and bosonic clouds interact differently.

The researchers found that in the case of fuzzy dark matter surrounding the SMBH, energy losses due to scalar field depletion can exceed those due to gravitational wave radiation, especially when small objects are far away from the SMBH. .

Incorporating a relativistic framework also revealed the resonance behavior of gravitational waves, a relativistic effect that does not exist in the Newtonian model.

In the case of bosonic clouds, energy dissipation due to scalar depletion turns out to be very sensitive to the properties of the surrounding environment.

The study, which resulted in a more accurate model of how different matter types affect gravitational waves, could significantly advance our understanding of gravity and could be used to explore dark matter. presents important measures.

The researchers mention future work extending the framework to account for eccentric trajectories that are more likely to be seen on EMRI.

They also plan to apply the relativistic framework to active galactic nuclei (AGN) disks, which are thought to house large amounts of dark matter. Because dark matter is essential for the formation of large-scale structures, this study could shed more light on the role of dark matter in the universe.

Further information: Francisco Duque et al, Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals in Ultralight Dark Matter, Physical Review Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.121404

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Citation: Investigating the impact of ultralight dark matter on gravitational wave signals (October 20, 2024), from https://phys.org/news/2024-10-impact-ultralight-dark-gravitational.html 10/2024 Retrieved on 20th of month

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