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Abstract

The post-Newtonian dynamics of black hole binaries in
Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theories of gravity depends on the so-called
"sensitivities", quantities which characterize a black hole's adiabatic
response to the time-dependent scalar field environment sourced by its
companion. In this work, we calculate numerically the sensitivities of
nonrotating black holes, including spontaneously scalarized ones, in three
classes of Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity: the shift-symmetric, dilatonic
and Gaussian theories. When possible, we compare our results against
perturbative analytical results, finding excellent agreement. Unlike their
general relativistic counterparts, black holes in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet
gravity only exist in a restricted parameter space controlled by the theory's
coupling constant. A preliminary study of the role played by the sensitivities
in black hole binaries suggests that, in principle, black holes can be driven
outside of their domain of existence during the inspiral, for binary parameters
which we determine.