Dark matter: an efficient catalyst for intermediate-mass-ratio-inspiral events

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that dark matter minispikes around intermediate-mass black holes significantly accelerate inspiral events, greatly increasing the expected gravitational wave detection rates and providing a new way to probe dark matter distribution.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of dark matter minispikes on IMRI/EMRI merger rates, showing they can enhance event rates and influence the mass function of IMBHs, which was not previously considered.

Findings

Merger timescales are shortened by two to three orders of magnitude.

Event rates of IMRIs/EMRIs are increased by orders of magnitude due to dark matter.

Dark matter minispikes imprint on the mass function of low-mass IMBHs.

Abstract

Gravitational waves (GWs) can be produced if a stellar compact object, such as a black hole (BH) or neutron star, inspirals into an intermediate-massive black hole (IMBH) of $(10^3 \sim 10^5)\,M_\odot$. Such a system may be produced in the center of a globular cluster (GC) or a nuclear star cluster (NSC), and is known as an intermediate- or extreme-mass-ratio inspiral (IMRI or EMRI). Motivated by the recent suggestions that dark matter minispikes could form around IMBHs, we study the effect of dynamical friction against DM on the merger rate of IMRIs/EMRIs. We find that the merger timescale of IMBHs with BHs and NSs would be shortened by two to three orders of magnitude. As a result, the event rate of IMRIs/EMRIs are enhanced by orders of magnitude relative to that in the case of no DM minispikes. In the most extreme case where IMBHs are small and the DM minispikes have a steep density profile, all the BH in GCs and NSCs might be exhausted so that the mergers with NSs would dominate the current IMRIs/EMRIs. Our results suggest that the mass function of the IMBHs below $10^4 \,M_\odot$ would bear imprints of the distribution of DM minispikes because these low-mass IMBHs can grow efficiently in the presence of DM minispikes by merging with BHs and NSs. Future space-based GW detectors, like LISA, Taiji, and Tianqin, can measure the IMRI/EMRI rate and hence constrain the distribution of DM around IMBHs.