3 papers
astro-ph.CO2026
The swallowed spike: the formation of light primordial black hole structures around heavy seeds
Agnese Tolino, Francesca Scarcella, Bradley J. Kavanagh +2
Spikes are steep enhancements in the dark matter (DM) distribution around a heavy compact object. If the compact object is primordial, and the bulk of the DM is also composed of (l…
astro-ph.GA2026
On the survival of dark matter spikes: Stellar and compact-object perturbations
Theophanes K. Karydas, Francesca Scarcella, Bradley J. Kavanagh +1
Establishing realistic expectations for the dark matter (DM) distribution near a supermassive black hole (BH) is essential for assessing environmental imprints on gravitational wav…
hep-ph2026
Hints of Dark Matter Spikes in Low-mass X-ray Binaries: a critical assessment
Francesca Scarcella, Bradley J. Kavanagh
Three black-hole low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in the Milky Way show rates of period decay which cannot be easily explained by standard mechanisms. Recently, it has been claimed…