TY - JOUR

T1 - Gravitational wave searches for ultralight bosons with LIGO and LISA

AU - Brito, Richard

AU - Ghosh, Shrobana

AU - Barausse, Enrico

AU - Berti, Emanuele

AU - Cardoso, Vitor

AU - Dvorkin, Irina

AU - Klein, Antoine

AU - Pani, Paolo

PY - 2017/9/27

Y1 - 2017/9/27

N2 - Ultralight bosons can induce superradiant instabilities in spinning black holes, tapping their rotational energy to trigger the growth of a bosonic condensate. Possible observational imprints of these boson clouds include (i) direct detection of the nearly monochromatic (resolvable or stochastic) gravitational waves emitted by the condensate, and (ii) statistically significant evidence for the formation of "holes" at large spins in the spin versus mass plane (sometimes also referred to as "Regge plane") of astrophysical black holes. In this work, we focus on the prospects of LISA and LIGO detecting or constraining scalars with mass in the range m(s) is an element of[10(-19), 10(-15)] eV and m(s) is an element of[10(-14), 10(-11)] eV, respectively. Using astrophysical models of black-hole populations calibrated to observations and black-hole perturbation theory calculations of the gravitational emission, we find that, in optimistic scenarios, LIGO could observe a stochastic background of gravitational radiation in the range m(s) is an element of[2 x 10(-13), 10(-12)] eV, and up to 10(4) resolvable events in a 4-year search if m(s) similar to 3 x 10(-13) eV. LISA could observe a stochastic background for boson masses in the range m(s) is an element of[5 x 10(-19), 5 x 10(-16)], and up to similar to 10(3) resolvable events in a 4-year search if m(s) similar to 10(-17) eV. LISA could further measure spins for black-hole binaries with component masses in the range [10(3), 10(7)] M-circle dot, which is not probed by traditional spin-measurement techniques. A statistical analysis of the spin distribution of these binaries could either rule out scalar fields in the mass range similar to[4 x 10(-18),10(-14)] eV, or measure ms with ten percent accuracy if light scalars in the mass range similar to[10(-17), 10(-13)] eV exist.

AB - Ultralight bosons can induce superradiant instabilities in spinning black holes, tapping their rotational energy to trigger the growth of a bosonic condensate. Possible observational imprints of these boson clouds include (i) direct detection of the nearly monochromatic (resolvable or stochastic) gravitational waves emitted by the condensate, and (ii) statistically significant evidence for the formation of "holes" at large spins in the spin versus mass plane (sometimes also referred to as "Regge plane") of astrophysical black holes. In this work, we focus on the prospects of LISA and LIGO detecting or constraining scalars with mass in the range m(s) is an element of[10(-19), 10(-15)] eV and m(s) is an element of[10(-14), 10(-11)] eV, respectively. Using astrophysical models of black-hole populations calibrated to observations and black-hole perturbation theory calculations of the gravitational emission, we find that, in optimistic scenarios, LIGO could observe a stochastic background of gravitational radiation in the range m(s) is an element of[2 x 10(-13), 10(-12)] eV, and up to 10(4) resolvable events in a 4-year search if m(s) similar to 3 x 10(-13) eV. LISA could observe a stochastic background for boson masses in the range m(s) is an element of[5 x 10(-19), 5 x 10(-16)], and up to similar to 10(3) resolvable events in a 4-year search if m(s) similar to 10(-17) eV. LISA could further measure spins for black-hole binaries with component masses in the range [10(3), 10(7)] M-circle dot, which is not probed by traditional spin-measurement techniques. A statistical analysis of the spin distribution of these binaries could either rule out scalar fields in the mass range similar to[4 x 10(-18),10(-14)] eV, or measure ms with ten percent accuracy if light scalars in the mass range similar to[10(-17), 10(-13)] eV exist.

KW - BINARY BLACK-HOLES

KW - GALACTIC NUCLEI

KW - EVOLUTION

KW - MASS

KW - SPIN

KW - METALLICITY

KW - GALAXIES

KW - STARS

KW - RATES

KW - PERTURBATIONS

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.96.064050

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.96.064050

M3 - Journal article

VL - 96

JO - Physical Review D

JF - Physical Review D

SN - 2470-0010

IS - 6

M1 - 064050

ER -