Dark Matter Signatures of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries

Understand

A natural consequence of the galaxy formation paradigm is the existence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries.

• Gravitational perturbations from a far-away SMBH companion can induce high orbital eccentricities on dark matter particles orbiting the primary SMBH via the eccentric Kozai-Lidov mechanism.
• This process yields an influx of dark matter particles into the primary SMBH ergosphere, where test particles linger for long timescales.
• This influx results in high self-gravitating densities, forming a dark matter clump that is extremely close to the SMBH.