Gravitational Waves from Mergers as a Probe of Particle Dark Matter

Dark Matter (DM) particles travelling through stars may interact with Standard Model particles and lose energy, and eventually get trapped inside the host star. Constant accumulation of DM particles in the host star may trigger dark core formation, which eventually collapses to a tiny Black Hole (BH). This BH eventually consumes the entire star and transforms it into a similar-mass BH. We study this scenario in Binary Neutron Stars (BNSs), Population III stars, and also in non-compact stars. Gravitational Wave (GW) signatures from these exotic BH mergers shed light on DM parameter space that is inaccessible to conventional laboratory-based experiments. These DM-induced collapses in different kinds of celestial bodies may be tested via their gravitational wave signatures in the existing (LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA) and future detectors (LISA, NANOGrav, PTAs).