DESY Theory Seminar

# Detecting Dark Matter around Black Holes with Gravitational Waves

## by Bradley Kavanagh (GRAPPA Amsterdam)

Monday, January 27, 2020 from to (Europe/Berlin)
at Bldg 2A ( SR2 )
 Description The observation of Gravitational Waves (GWs) has opened up a whole new avenue for constraining and detecting particle Dark Matter (DM). One of the most promising systems to study is the Intermediate Mass Ratio Inspiral (IMRI): a stellar-mass compact object such as a black hole or neutron star inspiraling towards an intermediate mass black hole, thousands of times more massive than the Sun. Sub-hertz GWs emitted during the inspiral should be detectable by future space-based observatories such as LISA. But the presence of DM in the system can have subtle dynamical effects on the inspiral, altering the waveform and allowing for a detection of DM almost independently of its particle properties. I will discuss ongoing work to study these systems carefully and self-consistently, incorporating the effects of feedback on the DM halo, in order to determine whether such a signal can be detected and what we can learn about Dark Matter if it is.