English

Probing the Dark Matter density with gravitational waves from super-massive binary black holes

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2023-07-04 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Supermassive black hole binaries source gravitational waves measured by Pulsar Timing Arrays. The frequency spectrum of this stochastic background is predicted more precisely than its amplitude. We argue that Dark Matter friction can suppress the spectrum around nHz frequencies, where it is measured, allowing to derive robust and significant bounds on the Dark Matter density, which, in turn, controls indirect detection signals from galactic centers. A precise spectrum of gravitational waves would translate in a tomography of the DM density profile, potentially probing DM particle-physics effects that induce a characteristic DM density profile, such as DM annihilations or de Broglie wavelength.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.17158,
  title  = {Probing the Dark Matter density with gravitational waves from super-massive binary black holes},
  author = {Anish Ghoshal and Alessandro Strumia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.17158},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

16 pages, 3 figures. v2: factor {\pi} fixed, references added. Webinar presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHGdNLOZ0uc