Extreme mass ratio inspirals in rotating dark matter spikes

Gravitational wave (GW) signals from extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are a key observational target for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The waveforms may be affected by the astrophysical environment surrounding the central black hole (BH), and in particular by the surrounding dark matter (DM) distribution. In this work, we consider the effect of a rotating DM ``spike'' around a central Kerr BH, and assess its detectability with LISA. Using a fully relativistic model for the rotating spike, we investigate its effect on the inspiral and hence on the emitted GW signals. We compute dephasings and mismatches to quantify how the spin of the primary BH affects the binary dynamics and the gravitational waveform. We show that the modifications due to the spin of the primary BH improve the detection prospects of DM spikes with LISA, and must be taken into account for future parameter estimation studies. We also estimate within post-Newtonian theory how the environment affects the background metric, and show that this effect is mostly negligible for the systems we consider.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Published
2025-07-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/ycl1-kx7d
Citations
11
Primary Topic
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
12.70
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article

Extreme mass ratio inspirals in rotating dark matter spikes

Sumanta Chakraborty, Nicholas Speeney, Emanuele Berti, Karl J. Friston
11 citations
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
12.70
article

Extreme mass ratio inspirals in rotating dark matter spikes

Sumanta Chakraborty, Nicholas Speeney, Emanuele Berti, Karl J. Friston
article en
11 citations

Abstract

Gravitational wave (GW) signals from extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are a key observational target for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The waveforms may be affected by the astrophysical environment surrounding the central black hole (BH), and in particular by the surrounding dark matter (DM) distribution. In this work, we consider the effect of a rotating DM ``spike'' around a central Kerr BH, and assess its detectability with LISA. Using a fully relativistic model for the rotating spike, we investigate its effect on the inspiral and hence on the emitted GW signals. We compute dephasings and mismatches to quantify how the spin of the primary BH affects the binary dynamics and the gravitational waveform. We show that the modifications due to the spin of the primary BH improve the detection prospects of DM spikes with LISA, and must be taken into account for future parameter estimation studies. We also estimate within post-Newtonian theory how the environment affects the background metric, and show that this effect is mostly negligible for the systems we consider.

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.Vol. 112(4)
Johns Hopkins University (US), Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IN), University of South Dakota (US)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
12.70
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