Black hole binaries and light fields: Gravitational molecules
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2021-01-13 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We show that light scalars can form quasibound states around binaries. In the nonrelativistic regime, these states are formally described by the quantum-mechanical Schrodinger equation for a one-electron heteronuclear diatomic molecule. We performed extensive numerical simulations of scalar fields around black hole binaries showing that a scalar structure condenses around the binary -- we dub these states "gravitational molecules". We further show that these are well described by the perturbative, nonrelativistic description.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2010.00008,
title = {Black hole binaries and light fields: Gravitational molecules},
author = {Taishi Ikeda and Laura Bernard and Vitor Cardoso and Miguel Zilhao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.00008},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
16 pages, 12 figures. Matches published version in PRD