Speaker
Yourong Wang
Description
I will discuss simulations a massive objects interacting with ULDM, using an extension of the PyUltraLight code. Simulations of a point mass moving in a uniform background and a SMBH moving within a ULDM soliton broadly confirm simple estimates of dynamical friction timescales. However, in addition to generating complex inhomogeneities, SMHB-ULDM interactions excite coherent ``breathing modes’' in the soliton. The resulting stochastic dynamics increases the complexity of SMBH-ULDM interactions and is likely to have implications for SMBH merger rates in a ULDM-dominated universe.
