Intermediate mass ratio inspirals in dark matter halos

Abstract

We study eccentric equatorial orbits of a stellar-mass black hole around an intermediate-mass slowly rotating Kerr black hole in the presence of gravitational radiation and a dark matter halo. The stellar-mass companion will inspiral towards the central black hole while emitting gravitational waves. The evolution is affected by the dynamical friction force caused by the presence of dark matter surrounding the intermediate-mass black hole at the core. Previous studies have shown that the presence of dark matter can be deduced from the gravitational waveforms. We explore the combined effects of slow-rotation of the central black hole and the presence of the dark matter halo around it on the system's gravitational wave emission.