Gravitational Wave Duet by Resonating Binary Black Holes within Ultralight Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper explores how resonant interactions between binary black holes and ultralight dark matter solitons can produce detectable oscillatory patterns in gravitational waves, offering a new way to probe dark matter with future gravitational-wave detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where ultralight dark matter solitons induce observable gravitational wave signatures through resonant interactions with binary black holes.

Findings

Resonant interactions generate distinct oscillatory gravitational wave patterns.

Future detectors like LISA could detect these patterns, providing evidence for ultralight dark matter.

The effect relies solely on gravity, independent of dark matter coupling to Standard Model particles.

Abstract

Gravitational wave observations have significantly broadened our capacity to explore fundamental physics beyond the Standard Model, providing crucial insights into dark matter that are inaccessible through conventional methods. Here, we investigate the resonant interactions between binary black hole systems and solitons, self-gravitating configurations of ultralight bosonic dark matter, which induce metric perturbations and generate distinct oscillatory patterns in gravitational waves. Upcoming experiments such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna could detect the oscillatory patterns in gravitational waveforms, providing an evidence for solitons. Because the effect relies solely on gravity, it does not assume any coupling of the dark sector to Standard Model particles, highlighting the capability of future gravitational-wave surveys to probe dark matter.