Modeling extreme mass-ratio inspirals in astrophysical and dark-matter environments
Abstract
Extreme mass-ratio inspirals offer a powerful probe of massive black holes and their environments, but interpreting their signals requires accurate models of orbital dynamics and radiation. Here we bring together advances in black-hole perturbation theory to establish a unified relativistic framework for adiabatic inspirals in perturbative astrophysical environments. Built on the modified Teukolsky formalism, the framework requires neither post-Newtonian nor slow-rotation approximations. As a first application, we calculate the leading cloud-induced corrections to gravitational-wave fluxes and conservative orbital dynamics for circular, equatorial inspirals around a rotating black hole surrounded by a synchronized ultralight scalar cloud, combining these corrections with the previously calculated scalar response. In our fiducial system, a cloud containing 10−4 of the black-hole mass produces about −57.3 radians of orbital dephasing over two years. The phase contributions from gravitational-wave flux corrections and background-induced orbital shifts each exceed the scalar contribution in magnitude and partially cancel, highlighting the need for coupled matter-gravity modeling. Extensible to other environments and modified gravity theories, our framework provides the relativistic inputs needed to assess detection losses and parameter biases, and to probe the nature of black-hole environments with future space-based gravitational-wave observations.
Related
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- Pitching Cosmic Curveballs: Environmental Effects on Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals with Spinning Secondaries
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BibTeX
@misc{li2026modeling,
title = {{Modeling extreme mass-ratio inspirals in astrophysical and dark-matter environments}},
author = {Dongjun Li and Hao-Jui Kuan and Colin Weller and Chaoyi Yang and Kelvin Ka-Ho Lam and Patrick Bourg and Adrian Ka-Wai Chung and Yanbei Chen and Nicolás Yunes and Huan Yang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.22480},
eprint = {2610.22480},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22480},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Modeling extreme mass-ratio inspirals in astrophysical and dark-matter environments
AU - Dongjun Li
AU - Hao-Jui Kuan
AU - Colin Weller
AU - Chaoyi Yang
AU - Kelvin Ka-Ho Lam
AU - Patrick Bourg
AU - Adrian Ka-Wai Chung
AU - Yanbei Chen
AU - Nicolás Yunes
AU - Huan Yang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.22480
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22480
AB - Extreme mass-ratio inspirals offer a powerful probe of massive black holes and their environments, but interpreting their signals requires accurate models of orbital dynamics and radiation. Here we bring together advances in black-hole perturbation theory to establish a unified relativistic framework for adiabatic inspirals in perturbative astrophysical environments. Built on the modified Teukolsky formalism, the framework requires neither post-Newtonian nor slow-rotation approximations. As a first application, we calculate the leading cloud-induced corrections to gravitational-wave fluxes and conservative orbital dynamics for circular, equatorial inspirals around a rotating black hole surrounded by a synchronized ultralight scalar cloud, combining these corrections with the previously calculated scalar response. In our fiducial system, a cloud containing 10^−4 of the black-hole mass produces about −57.3 radians of orbital dephasing over two years. The phase contributions from gravitational-wave flux corrections and background-induced orbital shifts each exceed the scalar contribution in magnitude and partially cancel, highlighting the need for coupled matter-gravity modeling. Extensible to other environments and modified gravity theories, our framework provides the relativistic inputs needed to assess detection losses and parameter biases, and to probe the nature of black-hole environments with future space-based gravitational-wave observations.
ER -