Field excitation in fuzzy dark matter near a strong gravitational wave source

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong gravitational waves from events like black hole mergers can excite fuzzy dark matter fields, potentially altering gravitational wave signals and offering a new way to detect ultralight axion-like particles.

Contribution

It introduces a model for the interaction between gravitational waves and fuzzy dark matter, predicting field excitations that could modify GW waveforms and aid in detecting FDM.

Findings

GWs induce field excitations in FDM near merger events.

Excitations occur during the late merger and ringdown phases.

Potential observable effects on GW signals due to FDM presence.

Abstract

The axion-like particles with ultralight mass ($\sim10^{-22}$eV) can be a possible candidate of dark matter, known as the fuzzy dark matter (FDM). These particles form Bose-Einstein condensate in the early Universe which can explain the dark matter density distribution in galaxies at the present time. We study the time evolution of ultralight axion-like field in the near region of a strong gravitational wave (GW) source, such as binary black hole merger. We show that GWs can lead to the generation of field excitations in a spherical shell about the source that eventually propagate out of the shell to minimize the energy density of the field configuration. These excitations are generated toward the end of the merger and in some cases even in the ringdown phase of the merger, therefore it can provide a qualitatively distinct prediction for changes in the GW waveform due to the presence of FDM. This would be helpful in investigating the existence of FDM in galaxies.