Mass transfer and boson cloud depletion in a binary black hole system

TL;DR

This paper investigates how boson clouds around black holes in binary systems transfer mass and deplete, revealing a new mechanism distinct from resonant perturbations, with implications for gravitational wave signals.

Contribution

It develops a framework to analyze mass transfer and boson cloud depletion in binary black hole systems, highlighting a novel depletion mechanism.

Findings

Boson clouds can transfer from one black hole to its companion.

Depletion occurs via mode jumping, not just resonant perturbations.

Impacts gravitational wave signatures from such systems.

Abstract

Ultralight boson is one of the potential candidates for dark matter. If exists, it can be generated by a rapidly rotating black hole via superradiance, extracting the energy and angular momentum of the black hole and forming a boson cloud. The boson cloud can be affected by the presence of a companion star, generating fruitful dynamical effects and producing characteristic gravitational wave signals. We study the dynamics of the boson cloud in a binary black hole system, in particular, we develop a framework to study the mass transfer between two black holes. It is found that bosons occupying the growing modes of the central black hole can jump to the decaying modes of the companion black hole, resulting in cloud depletion. This mechanism of cloud depletion is different from that induced by the resonant perturbation from the companion.