Growth of accretion driven scalar hair around Kerr black holes

Scalar fields around compact objects are of interest for scalar-tensor theories of gravity and dark matter models consisting of a massive scalar, e.g., axions. We study the behavior of a scalar field around a Kerr black hole with nontrivial asymptotic boundary conditions-both nonzero density and nonzero angular momentum. Starting from an initial radially homogeneous configuration, a scalar cloud is accreted, which asymptotes to known stationary configurations over time. We study the cloud growth for different parameters including black hole spin, scalar field mass, and the scalar field density and angular momentum far from the black hole. We characterize the transient growth of the mass and angular momentum in the cloud, and the spatial profile of the scalar around the black hole, and relate the results of fully nonlinear simulations to an analytic perturbative expansion. We also highlight the potential for these accreted clouds to create monochromatic gravitational wave signals-similar to the signals from superradiant clouds, although significantly weaker in amplitude.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the behavior of scalar fields around compact objects and the growth of scalar clouds, revealing the mass and angular momentum growth of scalar clouds under different conditions, and analyzing the spatial distribution of scalars around black holes. The results also indicate the potential for accreted clouds to generate monochromatic gravitational wave signals similar to those from superradiant clouds, although with significantly weaker amplitudes.