Dark matter, black holes, and gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper reviews how black holes influence dark matter distributions, explores the evolution of black hole binaries with dark matter, and discusses future gravitational wave observations to detect dark matter overdensities.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of dark matter structures around black holes and highlights the potential of gravitational wave detectors to study dark matter.

Findings

Dark matter overdensities around black holes include cusps, spikes, and gravitational atoms.

Black hole binaries transfer energy to dark matter via dynamical friction.

Future gravitational wave detectors could detect dark matter overdensities.

Abstract

The formation and growth of black holes can strongly influence the distribution of dark matter around them. I discuss here the different types of dark matter overdensities around black holes, including dark matter cusps, spikes, mounds, crests, and gravitational atoms. I then review recent results on the evolution of a black holes binary in presence of dark matter, focusing on the energy transfer between binary and dark matter induced by dynamical friction. Finally, I present the prospects for studying dark matter with gravitational wave observations, and argue that future interferometers might be able to detect and characterise dark matter overdensities around black holes.