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Relativistic treatment of accretion disk torques on extreme mass-ratio inspirals around nonspinning black holes

Abhishek Hegade K. R.1,2,*, Charles F. Gammie3,†, and Nicolás Yunes1,‡

  • *Contact author: ah4278@princeton.edu
  • †Contact author: gammie@illinois.edu
  • ‡Contact author: nyunes@illinois.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 124012 – Published 3 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9src-p7sp

Abstract

We develop a relativistically accurate formalism to model the interaction between stellar mass compact objects embedded in thin accretion disks around a nonspinning supermassive black hole, using tools from self-force theory and Hamiltonian perturbation theory. We then apply this formalism to analyze the evolution of a compact object on a nearly circular and equatorial orbit interacting with a thin equatorial disk. We provide analytic and relativistically accurate expressions for the rates of energy and angular momentum exchanged during interactions due to Lindblad and corotation resonances. Our results show that relativistic corrections can enhance the magnitude of the torque by 1–2 orders of magnitude compared to purely Newtonian expressions when the orbit of the compact object is smaller than ten Schwarzschild radii of the supermassive black hole. We also demonstrate that strong relativistic effects shifts the inner Lindblad resonances closer to the compact object than the outer Lindblad resonances when the compact object is closer than four Schwarzschild radii to the supermassive black hole, potentially leading to a reversal in the direction of the torque acting on the compact object. Finally, we provide a dephasing estimate and show that using the relativistic torque formula is crucial to obtain reliable estimates for extreme mass-ratio inspirals in orbits closer than five Schwarzschild radii to the supermassive black hole. Our results highlight the importance of using relativistically accurate models of environmental interactions in extreme mass-ratio inspirals close to a supermassive black hole.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 124012– Published 3 December, 2025
  • Received 28 September 2025
  • Accepted 14 November 2025
Article part of CHORUS
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