Gravitational memory meets astrophysical environments: exploring a new frontier through osculations

Abstract

We present the first study of how dark matter environments influence nonlinear gravitational memory from intermediate-mass-ratio binaries. Incorporating dark matter effects-gravitational potential, dynamical friction, and accretion-we compute nonlinear memory for both bound and unbound orbits under dark matter minispikes and Navarro-Frenk-White profiles. For quasi-circular orbits within a minispike profile, we further account empirically for the evolution of the dark matter density. Our findings reveal significant deviations from the vacuum case, with important implications for the detectability of gravitational memory by future gravitational wave observatories. These results underscore the role of astrophysical environments in shaping gravitational memory, strengthening its interpretation as a hereditary imprint of past binary evolution and providing a novel bridge between dark matter physics and memory effects.