Rapid post-merger signal of circularly polarized gravitational wave from magnetic black hole superradiance: novel approach to detect magnetic monopole

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel theoretical framework showing that magnetic black holes can produce rapidly growing, circularly polarized gravitational waves post-merger, offering a new method to detect magnetic monopoles and ultralight bosons.

Contribution

The study reveals that magnetic charge significantly amplifies superradiant instability, leading to distinctive circularly polarized gravitational wave signals that can be used for detection.

Findings

Amplified superradiant instability in magnetic black holes.

Generation of nearly monochromatic, circularly polarized GWs.

Potential for rapid post-merger GW detection within weeks.

Abstract

We present an analytic framework demonstrating that a spinning black hole endowed with a net magnetic charge exhibits a dramatically amplified superradiant instability against charged scalar fields, enhanced by several orders of magnitude compared with the neutral Kerr case. The amplification arises from a monopole induced reduction of the centrifugal barrier. This shift deepens the gravitational bound-state potential well and produces a parametrically larger instability growth rate. This resulting rapid growth yields a macroscopic boson cloud that acts as a coherent source of near monochromatic continuous gravitational waves (GWs). We find an enhanced GW power. Monopole harmonic selection rules restrict the emission from the north (south) clouds corresponding to opposite helicities. Their superposition generates an (approximately) circularly polarized continuous GWs at a fixed sky location within even parity general relativity, distinct from the generic elliptical polarization of the Kerr case. In light of these new findings, we propose a potential smoking-gun search strategy for magnetic monopole and ultralight boson: the rapid post-merger follow-up GW signals from binary-black-hole merger remnants through ground-based and space-based GW experiments. In contrast to the Kerr case, where the signal turn-on can be delayed to decades-centuries, a magnetic remnant can form a cloud and emit a stronger, circularly polarized continuous GWs within weeks to months. Taking the magnetic supermassive remnants as an example, we demonstrate that the rapid follow-up GW signal in the mHz band appears just in few weeks after binary black hole mergers. Moreover, future polarization (ellipticity) measurements can distinguish the magnetic scenario from Kerr while providing a parity-even mechanism for circularly polarized GWs in general relativity.