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    Black-hole hair from vector dark matter accretion

    Fredric Hancock1,* and Helvi Witek1,2,†

    • *Contact author: foh3@illinois.edu
    • †Contact author: hwitek@illinois.edu

    Phys. Rev. D 112, 044033 – Published 19 August, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/v425-4yvq

    Abstract

    We model a single black hole in equilibrium with a dark photon-cold dark matter environment. Representing the dark photon as a Proca field, we show that a Schwarzschild black hole grows vector-field “hair” when allowed to accrete from an infinite homogeneous bath of particles far from the horizon. We solve the Proca equation in linear perturbation theory, separating it using the vector spherical harmonics and Frolov-Krtouš-Kubizňák-Santos approaches for the odd-parity and even-parity sectors, respectively. In the “particle” dark matter regime, the field is purely infalling and exhibits a sharply peaked density profile, in concordance with the particle dark matter “spikes” studied in the literature. In the “wave” regime, the field exhibits standing waves, and the profile is smeared. We find a dark-matter density amplification upward of 107 near the horizon. Though small for most black holes, we find the mass enclosed in the cloud can reach ∼1% of the black hole mass for large supermassive black holes. These black holes are also most susceptible to vector dark matter accretion, with mass accretion rates as large as 10M⊙/yr.

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