Probing Dark Matter Spikes via Gravitational Waves of Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals

Understand

The exact properties of dark matter remain largely unknown despite the accumulating evidence.

• If dark matter is composed of weakly interacting massive particles, it would be accreted by the black hole in the galactic center and form a dense, cuspy spike.
• Dynamical friction from this spike may have observable effects in a binary system.
• We consider extreme-mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI) binaries comprising massive black holes harbored in dark matter spikes and stellar mass objects in elliptic orbits.