Constraints on dark photon dark matter using data from LIGO’s and Virgo’s third observing run

Collaborations
May 27, 2021
20 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 105 (2022) 6, 063030,
  • Phys.Rev.D 109 (2024) 8, 089902 (erratum)
  • Published: Mar 15, 2022
    and
  • Published: Apr 15, 2024
e-Print:
Report number:
  • LIGO-P2100098
Experiments:

Citations per year

20202021202220232024110282
Abstract: (APS)
We present a search for dark photon dark matter that could couple to gravitational-wave interferometers using data from Advanced LIGO and Virgo’s third observing run. To perform this analysis, we use two methods, one based on cross-correlation of the strain channels in the two nearly aligned LIGO detectors, and one that looks for excess power in the strain channels of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. The excess power method optimizes the Fourier transform coherence time as a function of frequency, to account for the expected signal width due to Doppler modulations. We do not find any evidence of dark photon dark matter with a mass between mA 10141011eV/c2m_A ~10^{-14}-10^{-11} eV/c^2, which corresponds to frequencies between 10–2000 Hz, and therefore provide upper limits on the square of the minimum coupling of dark photons to baryons, i.e., U(1)BU(1)_B dark matter. For the cross-correlation method, the best median constraint on the squared coupling is  1.31×1047~1.31\times10^{-47} at mA 4.2×1013eV/c2m_A~4.2\times10^{-13}eV/c^2; for the other analysis, the best constraint is  2.4×1047~2.4\times10^{47} at mA 5.7×1013eV/c2m_A~5.7\times10^{-13}eV/c2. These limits improve upon those obtained in direct dark matter detection experiments by a factor of ∼100 for mA [24]×1013eV/c2m_A~[2-4]\times10^{-13}eV/c^2, and are, in absolute terms, the most stringent constraint so far in a large mass range mA 2×10138×1012eV/c2m_A~2\times10^{-13}-8\times10^{-12}eV/c^2.
Note:
  • 20 pages, 7 figures; In the latest version, we integrated the changes reported in the published erratum (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.089902). Essentially, we overestimated the sensitivity of the cross-correlation search to a dark photon dark matter signal and have corrected this, making the BSD limits the most stringent in this search at most dark photon masses
  • dark matter: direct detection
  • coupling: minimal
  • LIGO
  • VIRGO
  • coupling: (dark matter baryon)
  • gravitational radiation
  • gravitational radiation detector: interferometer
  • correlation function
  • data analysis method
  • Fourier transformation