Detecting Scalar Fields with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals

Maselli, Andrea; Franchini, Nicola; Gualtieri, Leonardo; Sotiriou, Thomas P.

Abstract

We study extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), during which a small body spirals into a supermassive black hole, in gravity theories with additional scalar fields. We first argue that no-hair theorems and the properties of known theories that manage to circumvent them introduce a drastic simplification to the problem: The effects of the scalar on supermassive black holes, if any, are mostly negligible for EMRIs in vast classes of theories. We then exploit this simplification to model the inspiral perturbatively and we demonstrate that the scalar charge of the small body leaves a significant imprint on gravitational wave emission. Although much higher precision is needed for waveform modeling, our results strongly suggest that this imprint is observable with Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, rendering EMRIs promising probes of scalar fields.

Citation

Maselli, A., Franchini, N., Gualtieri, L., & Sotiriou, T. P. (2020). Detecting Scalar Fields with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals. Physical Review Letters, 125(14), Article 141101. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.141101

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 31, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Sep 30, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2020
• Deposit Date: Oct 1, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 5, 2020
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 125
• Issue: 14
• Article Number: 141101
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.141101
• Keywords: General Physics and Astronomy
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4935369
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.141101