Gravitational Wave as a Probe of Low Mass Black Holes from Dark Matter Capture Induced Transmutation and Waveform Analysis

by Sulagna Bhattacharya (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai)

Thursday 5 Jun 2025, 11:30 → 13:00 Europe/Vienna

4.A1 (Postsparkasse)

Gravitational wave (GW) observations have opened new avenues for probing Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics. While most detections involve typical black hole (BH) or neutron star (NS) mergers, events like GW190814, GW190425, and GW230529 observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration include at least one compact object whose nature—either a binary neutron star (BNS) or a low-mass black hole (LMBH)—remains uncertain. One possible formation channel for such LMBHs involves dark matter (DM) capture and accumulation in NSs, leading to a collapse-induced transmutation of the NS into a BH of comparable mass.

 

I will discuss how DM capture in NSs can lead to the formation of LMBHs, highlighting the relevant parameter space that governs this process. I will also show how current GW observations can constrain portions of this DM parameter space. In the second part, I will focus on the gravitational waveforms of BNS mergers versus LMBH mergers, examining their distinguishing features and assessing the capability of current and future detectors to differentiate between these two scenarios.