Evolving intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals in the presence of dark matter

Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) can grow in dark matter environments and form locally dense distributions of dark matter called mini-spikes. We consider the environmental effects of such a spike on the inspiral of a stellar mass compact object into an IMBH. Previous studies demonstrated that dynamical friction acting from the dark matter on the inspiraling compact object has measurable effects in the emitted gravitational waves from the system, which the LISA mission could measure. However, these studies made several simplifying assumptions both in how the dark matter was evolved and in how the dynamical friction was computed. In this talk, I will discuss progress in evolving the dark matter distribution function through the collisionless Boltzmann equation and in computing the dynamical friction through resonant torques. Using these methods, we can more accurately determine the gravitational waveform from these systems.