Accretion-induced Collapse of Dark Matter-admixed Rotating White Dwarfs: Dynamics and Gravitational-wave Signals

Abstract

We present two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of rotating white dwarfs admixed with an extended component of dark matter (DM) comprising sub-gigaelectronvolt degenerate fermionic DM particles. We find that the DM component follows the collapse of the normal matter (NM) component to become a bound DM core. Thus, we demonstrate how a DM-admixed neutron star could form through DM-admixed AIC (DMAIC) for the first time, with the dynamics of DM taken into account. The gravitational-wave (GW) signature from the DMAIC shows distinctive features. In the diffusive DM limit, the DM admixture indirectly suppresses the post-bounce spectral peak of the NM GWs. In the compact DM limit, the collapse dynamics of the DM in a Milky Way event generate GWs that are strong enough to be detectable by Advanced LIGO as continuous low-frequency (<1000 Hz) signals after the NM core bounce. Our study not only is the first-ever computation of GW from a collapsing DM object but also provides the key features to identify DM in AIC events through future GW detections.

Keywords

• Astronomical simulations
• Hydrodynamical simulations
• Dark matter
• White dwarf stars
• Stellar rotation
• Gravitational waves