Research Projects

In Einstein’s formulation of gravitational interaction, gravity is an artefact of spacetime curvature. The theoretical set-up of gravity is known as General Relativity (GR). With the introduction of several sophisticated detectors for capturing gravitational wave (GW) signals, we can now verify how accurate or general the framework of Einstein’s GR is, especially in regimes where the gravity is strong. Therefore, it has opened up a new window into the Universe, allowing us to observe previously hidden events, such as the collisions of black holes and neutron stars. One of the most exciting possibilities for gravitational wave astronomy is the search for dark matter. Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that makes up approximately 85% of the matter in the Universe. However, it does not interact with electromagnetic radiation, making it extremely difficult to detect. However, it is thought that dark matter could produce gravitational waves as it interacts with itself or other matter. Dark matter could modify the polarization of gravitational waves, leading to detectable changes in amplitude and phase. Another approach to searching for dark matter with gravitational waves is to look for the effects of dark matter on the sources of gravitational waves, such as binary black hole mergers. Dark matter could modify the properties of the black holes, leading to detectable changes in the gravitational wave signal. This is where we will mainly focus on this proposal. Furthermore, one needs to introduce theories with field content beyond Standard Model to model dark matter. Hence one can expect that radiation due to these fields carried by gravitational waves also offers us new opportunities for exploring new physics, particularly in the form of new particles such as axions that could affect the phase and amplitude of gravitational waveforms. In this research proposal, we will explore the potential of gravitational wave astronomy to search for dark matter and to provide hints for new physics beyond the Standard Model. We will use modern approaches, e.g. worldline effective field theory, to compute GW waveforms. This will make the computations much easier as, unlike GR, the theories under consideration will include many different types of fields, not just the gravitational field. Then these waveforms can be used to put constraints and search for physics beyond the Standard Model, complementing the studies done in particle physics phenomenology. We also hope to predict the possibility of constraining dark matter through future GW detectors by analyzing GW signals emitted from extreme mass-ratio inspirals dressed with dark matter environment. Ultimately, besides developing a theoretical formalism for efficient computation of GW waveforms, we hope to use gravitational wave astronomy to shed light on the nature of dark matter and the fundamental laws of physics.