Related papers: Exploring Black Hole Environments
Several models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict the existence of new ultralight bosons. This thesis investigates a way to discover such particles through observations of gravitational waves from binary black holes. This is…
The direct detection of gravitational waves offers an exciting new window onto our Universe. At the same time, multiple observational evidence and theoretical considerations motivate the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. In…
In the coming decade, gravitational waves will convert the study of general relativistic aspects of black holes and stars from a largely theoretical enterprise to a highly interactive, observational/theoretical one. For example,…
The upcoming detection of gravitational waves by terrestrial interferometers will usher in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy. This will be particularly true when space-based detectors will come of age and measure the mass and spin of…
Over the next decade, third-generation interferometers and the space-based LISA mission will observe binaries in galactic centers involving supermassive black holes with millions of solar masses. More precise measurements of more extreme…
Ten short years ago, we had the rare privilege of witnessing the onset of a renaissance in science: humanity finally succeeded in its arduous quest to directly detect gravitational waves. This breakthrough did not occur in a vacuum: it was…
Astrophysical black holes are likely to be surrounded by various forms of matter in the form of disks or halos. While a number of studies have examined the impact of an environment on the lensing of light or gravitational waves from…
Rotating black holes can amplify ultralight bosonic fields through superradiance, forming macroscopic clouds known as gravitational atoms. When the cloud forms around one of the components of a binary system, it can undergo a series of…
Gravitational waves (GWs) are an exciting new probe of physics beyond the standard models of gravity and particle physics. One interesting possibility is provided by the so-called "gravitational atom," wherein a superradiant instability…
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…
The gravitational waves emitted by massive black hole binaries can be affected by a variety of environmental effects, which, if detected, could inform astrophysics and cosmology. We here study how gravitational waves emitted by black holes…
Rotating black holes can produce superradiant clouds of ultralight bosons. When the black hole is part of a binary system, its cloud can undergo resonances and ionization. These processes leave a distinct signature on the gravitational…
Gravitational waves may be one of the few direct observables produced by ultralight bosons, conjectured dark matter candidates that could be the key to several problems in particle theory, high-energy physics and cosmology. These axionlike…
The discovery of gravitational waves and black holes has started a new era of gravitational wave astronomy that allows us to probe the underpinning features of gravity and astrophysics in extreme environments of the universe. In this…
Future gravitational wave interferometers such as LISA, Taiji, DECIGO, and TianQin, will enable precision studies of the environment surrounding black holes. In this paper, we study intermediate and extreme mass ratio binary black hole…
The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics---dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem---all involve gravity as a key component. And of all…
Direct detection of gravitational waves from several compact binary coalescences has ushered in a new era of astronomy. It has opened up the possibility of detecting ultralight bosons, predicted by extensions of the Standard Model, from…
Light bosons, proposed as a possible solution to various problems in fundamental physics and cosmology, include a broad class of candidates for beyond the Standard Model physics, such as dilatons and moduli, wave dark matter and axion-like…
We study the gravitational-wave (GW) signatures of clouds of ultralight bosons around black holes (BHs) in binary inspirals. These clouds, which are formed via superradiance instabilities for rapidly rotating BHs, produce distinct effects…
Gravitational waves detected by advanced ground-based detectors have allowed studying the universe in a way which is fully complementary to electromagnetic observations. As more sources are detected, it will be possible to measure…