-
Search for continuous gravitational wave signals from luminous dark photon superradiance clouds with LVK O3 observations
Authors:
Lorenzo Mirasola,
Cristina Mondino,
Francesco Amicucci,
Nils Siemonsen,
Cristiano Palomba,
Sabrina D'Antonio,
Paola Leaci,
Luca D'Onofrio,
Pia Astone,
Daniel Egana-Ugrinovic,
Junwu Huang,
Masha Baryakhtar,
William E. East
Abstract:
Superradiance clouds of kinetically-mixed dark photons around spinning black holes can produce observable multi-messenger electromagnetic and gravitational wave signals. The cloud generates electric fields of up to a Teravolt-per-meter, which lead to a cascade production of charged particles, yielding a turbulent quasi-equilibrium plasma around the black hole, and resulting in electromagnetic flux…
▽ More
Superradiance clouds of kinetically-mixed dark photons around spinning black holes can produce observable multi-messenger electromagnetic and gravitational wave signals. The cloud generates electric fields of up to a Teravolt-per-meter, which lead to a cascade production of charged particles, yielding a turbulent quasi-equilibrium plasma around the black hole, and resulting in electromagnetic fluxes ranging from supernova to pulsar-like luminosities. For stellar mass black holes, such systems resemble millisecond pulsars and are expected to emit pulsating radio waves and continuous gravitational waves (CWs) within the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) sensitivity band. We select 44 sources with approximately coincident frequencies or positive frequency drifts from existing pulsar catalogs as potential candidates of long-lasting superradiance clouds around old galactic black holes. For a subset of 34 sources that are well measured and have not been previously targeted, we perform the first search for CW emission in LVK data from the third observing run. We find no evidence of a CW signal and place 95% confidence level upper limits on the emitted strain amplitude. We interpret these results, together with limits from previous searches, in terms of the underlying dark photon theory by performing an analysis of the expected signals from superradiance clouds from galactic black holes. We find that, even for moderately spinning black holes, the absence of an observed CW signal disfavors a discrete set of dark photon masses between about $10^{-13}$ $\rm{eV}/c^2$ and $10^{-12}$ $\rm{eV}/c^2$ and kinetic mixing couplings in the range of $10^{-9}$-$10^{-7}$, subject to assumptions about the properties of the black hole population and the cloud's electromagnetic emission.
△ Less
Submitted 27 May, 2025; v1 submitted 3 January, 2025;
originally announced January 2025.
-
Observational prospects of self-interacting scalar superradiance with next-generation gravitational-wave detectors
Authors:
Spencer Collaviti,
Ling Sun,
Marios Galanis,
Masha Baryakhtar
Abstract:
Current- and next-generation gravitational-wave observatories may reveal new, ultralight bosons. Through the superradiance process, these theoretical particle candidates can form clouds around astrophysical black holes and result in detectable gravitational-wave radiation. In the absence of detections, constraints$-$contingent on astrophysical assumptions$-$have been derived using LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA…
▽ More
Current- and next-generation gravitational-wave observatories may reveal new, ultralight bosons. Through the superradiance process, these theoretical particle candidates can form clouds around astrophysical black holes and result in detectable gravitational-wave radiation. In the absence of detections, constraints$-$contingent on astrophysical assumptions$-$have been derived using LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data on boson masses. However, the searches for ultralight scalars to date have not adequately considered self-interactions between particles. Self-interactions that significantly alter superradiance dynamics are generically present for many scalar models, including axion-like dark matter candidates and string axions. We implement the most complete treatment of particle self-interactions available to determine the gravitational-wave signatures expected from superradiant scalar clouds and revisit the constraints obtained in a past gravitational-wave search targeting the black hole in Cygnus X-1. We also project the reach of next-generation gravitational-wave observatories to scalar particle parameter space in the mass-coupling plane. We find that while proposed observatories have insufficient reach to self-interactions that can halt black hole spin-down, next-generation observatories are essential for expanding the search beyond gravitational parameter space and can reach a mass and interaction scale of $\sim 10^{-13}-10^{-12}$ eV/c$^2$ and $\gtrsim 10^{17}$ GeV, respectively.
△ Less
Submitted 26 November, 2024; v1 submitted 5 July, 2024;
originally announced July 2024.
-
Characterizing Gravitational Wave Detector Networks: From A$^\sharp$ to Cosmic Explorer
Authors:
Ish Gupta,
Chaitanya Afle,
K. G. Arun,
Ananya Bandopadhyay,
Masha Baryakhtar,
Sylvia Biscoveanu,
Ssohrab Borhanian,
Floor Broekgaarden,
Alessandra Corsi,
Arnab Dhani,
Matthew Evans,
Evan D. Hall,
Otto A. Hannuksela,
Keisi Kacanja,
Rahul Kashyap,
Sanika Khadkikar,
Kevin Kuns,
Tjonnie G. F. Li,
Andrew L. Miller,
Alexander Harvey Nitz,
Benjamin J. Owen,
Cristiano Palomba,
Anthony Pearce,
Hemantakumar Phurailatpam,
Binod Rajbhandari
, et al. (22 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
Gravitational-wave observations by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo have provided us a new tool to explore the Universe on all scales from nuclear physics to the cosmos and have the massive potential to further impact fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology for decades to come. In this paper we have studied the science capabilities of a network of L…
▽ More
Gravitational-wave observations by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo have provided us a new tool to explore the Universe on all scales from nuclear physics to the cosmos and have the massive potential to further impact fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology for decades to come. In this paper we have studied the science capabilities of a network of LIGO detectors when they reach their best possible sensitivity, called A#, given the infrastructure in which they exist and a new generation of observatories that are factor of 10 to 100 times more sensitive (depending on the frequency), in particular a pair of L-shaped Cosmic Explorer observatories (one 40 km and one 20 km arm length) in the US and the triangular Einstein Telescope with 10 km arms in Europe. The presence of one or two A# observatories in a network containing two or one next generation observatories, respectively, will provide good localization capabilities for facilitating multimessenger astronomy and precision measurement of the Hubble parameter. Two Cosmic Explorer observatories are indispensable for achieving precise localization of binary neutron star events, facilitating detection of electromagnetic counterparts and transforming multimessenger astronomy. Their combined operation is even more important in the detection and localization of high-redshift sources, such as binary neutron stars, beyond the star-formation peak, and primordial black hole mergers, which may occur roughly 100 million years after the Big Bang. The addition of the Einstein Telescope to a network of two Cosmic Explorer observatories is critical for accomplishing all the identified science metrics. For most metrics the triple network of next generation terrestrial observatories are a factor 100 better than what can be accomplished by a network of three A# observatories.
△ Less
Submitted 2 February, 2024; v1 submitted 19 July, 2023;
originally announced July 2023.
-
Dark photon superradiance: Electrodynamics and multimessenger signals
Authors:
Nils Siemonsen,
Cristina Mondino,
Daniel Egana-Ugrinovic,
Junwu Huang,
Masha Baryakhtar,
William E. East
Abstract:
We study the electrodynamics of a kinetically mixed dark photon cloud that forms through superradiance around a spinning black hole, and design strategies to search for the resulting multimessenger signals. A dark photon superradiance cloud sources a rotating dark electromagnetic field which, through kinetic mixing, induces a rotating visible electromagnetic field. Standard model charged particles…
▽ More
We study the electrodynamics of a kinetically mixed dark photon cloud that forms through superradiance around a spinning black hole, and design strategies to search for the resulting multimessenger signals. A dark photon superradiance cloud sources a rotating dark electromagnetic field which, through kinetic mixing, induces a rotating visible electromagnetic field. Standard model charged particles entering this field initiate a transient phase of particle production that populates a plasma inside the cloud and leads to a system which shares qualitative features with a pulsar magnetosphere. We study the electrodynamics of the dark photon cloud with resistive magnetohydrodynamics methods applicable to highly magnetized plasma, adapting techniques from simulations of pulsar magnetospheres. We identify turbulent magnetic field reconnection as the main source of dissipation and electromagnetic emission, and compute the peak luminosity from clouds around solar-mass black holes to be as large as $10^{43}$ erg/s for open dark photon parameter space. The emission is expected to have a significant X-ray component and is potentially periodic, with period set by the dark photon mass. The luminosity is comparable to the brightest X-ray sources in the Universe, allowing for searches at distances of up to hundreds of Mpc with existing telescopes. We discuss observational strategies, including targeted electromagnetic follow-ups of solar-mass black hole mergers and targeted continuous gravitational wave searches of anomalous pulsars.
△ Less
Submitted 21 April, 2023; v1 submitted 19 December, 2022;
originally announced December 2022.
-
The Next Generation Global Gravitational Wave Observatory: The Science Book
Authors:
Vicky Kalogera,
B. S. Sathyaprakash,
Matthew Bailes,
Marie-Anne Bizouard,
Alessandra Buonanno,
Adam Burrows,
Monica Colpi,
Matt Evans,
Stephen Fairhurst,
Stefan Hild,
Mansi M. Kasliwal,
Luis Lehner,
Ilya Mandel,
Vuk Mandic,
Samaya Nissanke,
Maria Alessandra Papa,
Sanjay Reddy,
Stephan Rosswog,
Chris Van Den Broeck,
P. Ajith,
Shreya Anand,
Igor Andreoni,
K. G. Arun,
Enrico Barausse,
Masha Baryakhtar
, et al. (66 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
The next generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will observe coalescences of black holes and neutron stars throughout the cosmos, thousands of them with exceptional fidelity. The Science Book is the result of a 3-year effort to study the science capabilities of networks of next generation detectors. Such networks would make it possible to address unsolved problems in numerous area…
▽ More
The next generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will observe coalescences of black holes and neutron stars throughout the cosmos, thousands of them with exceptional fidelity. The Science Book is the result of a 3-year effort to study the science capabilities of networks of next generation detectors. Such networks would make it possible to address unsolved problems in numerous areas of physics and astronomy, from Cosmology to Beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, and how they could provide insights into workings of strongly gravitating systems, astrophysics of compact objects and the nature of dense matter. It is inevitable that observatories of such depth and finesse will make new discoveries inaccessible to other windows of observation. In addition to laying out the rich science potential of the next generation of detectors, this report provides specific science targets in five different areas in physics and astronomy and the sensitivity requirements to accomplish those science goals.
This report is the second in a six part series of reports by the GWIC 3G Subcommittee: i) Expanding the Reach of Gravitational Wave Observatories to the Edge of the Universe, ii) The Next Generation Global Gravitational Wave Observatory: The Science Book (this report), iii) 3G R&D: R&D for the Next Generation of Ground-based Gravitational Wave Detectors, iv) Gravitational Wave Data Analysis: Computing Challenges in the 3G Era, v) Future Ground-based Gravitational-wave Observatories: Synergies with Other Scientific Communities, and vi) An Exploration of Possible Governance Models for the Future Global Gravitational-Wave Observatory Network.
△ Less
Submitted 12 November, 2021;
originally announced November 2021.
-
Black hole superradiance of self-interacting scalar fields
Authors:
Masha Baryakhtar,
Marios Galanis,
Robert Lasenby,
Olivier Simon
Abstract:
Black hole superradiance is a powerful probe of light, weakly-coupled hidden sector particles. Many candidate particles, such as axions, generically have self-interactions that can influence the evolution of the superradiant instability. As pointed out in arXiv:1604.06422 in the context of a toy model, much of the existing literature on spin-0 superradiance does not take into account the most impo…
▽ More
Black hole superradiance is a powerful probe of light, weakly-coupled hidden sector particles. Many candidate particles, such as axions, generically have self-interactions that can influence the evolution of the superradiant instability. As pointed out in arXiv:1604.06422 in the context of a toy model, much of the existing literature on spin-0 superradiance does not take into account the most important self-interaction-induced processes. These processes lead to energy exchange between quasi-bound levels and particle emission to infinity; for large self-couplings, superradiant growth is saturated at a quasi-equilibrium configuration of reduced level occupation numbers. In this paper, we perform a detailed analysis of the rich dynamics of spin-0 superradiance with self-interactions, and the resulting observational signatures. We focus on quartic self-interactions, which dominate the evolution for most models of interest. We explore multiple distinct regimes of parameter space introduced by a non-zero self-interaction, including the simultaneous population of two or more bound levels; at large coupling, we confirm the basic picture of quasi-equilibrium saturation and provide evidence that the "bosenova" collapse does not occur in most of the astrophysical parameter space. Compared to gravitational superradiance, we find that gravitational wave "annihilation" signals and black hole spin-down are parametrically suppressed with increasing interactions, while new gravitational wave "transition" signals can take place for moderate interactions. The novel phenomenon of scalar wave emission is less suppressed at large couplings, and if the particle has Standard Model interactions, then coherent, monochromatic axion wave signals from black hole superradiance may be detectable in proposed axion dark matter experiments.
△ Less
Submitted 16 February, 2021; v1 submitted 23 November, 2020;
originally announced November 2020.
-
Searching for new physics with a levitated-sensor-based gravitational-wave detector
Authors:
Nancy Aggarwal,
George P. Winstone,
Mae Teo,
Masha Baryakhtar,
Shane L. Larson,
Vicky Kalogera,
Andrew A. Geraci
Abstract:
The Levitated Sensor Detector (LSD) is a compact resonant gravitational-wave (GW) detector based on optically trapped dielectric particles that is under construction. The LSD sensitivity has more favorable frequency scaling at high frequencies compared to laser interferometer detectors such as LIGO. We propose a method to substantially improve the sensitivity by optically levitating a multi-layere…
▽ More
The Levitated Sensor Detector (LSD) is a compact resonant gravitational-wave (GW) detector based on optically trapped dielectric particles that is under construction. The LSD sensitivity has more favorable frequency scaling at high frequencies compared to laser interferometer detectors such as LIGO. We propose a method to substantially improve the sensitivity by optically levitating a multi-layered stack of dielectric discs. These stacks allow the use of a more massive levitated object while exhibiting minimal photon recoil heating due to light scattering. Over an order of magnitude of unexplored frequency space for GWs above 10 kHz is accessible with an instrument 10 to 100 meters in size. Particularly motivated sources in this frequency range are gravitationally bound states of QCD axions with decay constant near the grand unified theory (GUT) scale that form through black hole superradiance and annihilate to GWs. The LSD is also sensitive to GWs from binary coalescence of sub-solar-mass primordial black holes and as-yet unexplored new physics in the high-frequency GW window.
△ Less
Submitted 25 October, 2020;
originally announced October 2020.
-
Characterizing the continuous gravitational-wave signal from boson clouds around Galactic isolated black holes
Authors:
Sylvia J. Zhu,
Masha Baryakhtar,
Maria Alessandra Papa,
Daichi Tsuna,
Norita Kawanaka,
Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein
Abstract:
Ultralight bosons can form large clouds around stellar-mass black holes via the superradiance instability. Through processes such as annihilation, these bosons can source continuous gravitational wave signals with frequencies within the range of LIGO and Virgo. If boson annihilation occurs, then the Galactic black hole population will give rise to many gravitational signals; we refer to this as th…
▽ More
Ultralight bosons can form large clouds around stellar-mass black holes via the superradiance instability. Through processes such as annihilation, these bosons can source continuous gravitational wave signals with frequencies within the range of LIGO and Virgo. If boson annihilation occurs, then the Galactic black hole population will give rise to many gravitational signals; we refer to this as the ensemble signal. We characterize the ensemble signal as observed by the gravitational-wave detectors; this is important because the ensemble signal carries the primary signature that a continuous wave signal has a boson annihilation origin. We explore how a broad set of black hole population parameters affects the resulting spin-0 boson annihilation signal and consider its detectability by recent searches for continuous gravitational waves. A population of $10^8$ black holes with masses up to $30\mathrm{M}_\odot$ and a flat dimensionless initial spin distribution between zero and unity produces up to a thousand signals loud enough to be in principle detected by these searches. For a more moderately spinning population the number of signals drops by about an order of magnitude, still yielding up to a hundred detectable signals for some boson masses. A non-detection of annihilation signals at frequencies between 100 and 1200 Hz disfavors the existence of scalar bosons with rest energies between $2\times10^{-13}$ and $2.5\times10^{-12}$ eV. Finally we show that, depending on the black hole population parameters, care must be taken in assuming that the continuous wave upper limits from searches for isolated signals are still valid for signals that are part of a dense ensemble: Between 200 and 300 Hz, we urge caution when interpreting a null result for bosons between 4 and $6\times10^{-13}$ eV.
△ Less
Submitted 3 September, 2020; v1 submitted 6 March, 2020;
originally announced March 2020.
-
Extreme Gravity and Fundamental Physics
Authors:
B. S. Sathyaprakash,
Alessandra Buonanno,
Luis Lehner,
Chris Van Den Broeck,
P. Ajith,
Archisman Ghosh,
Katerina Chatziioannou,
Paolo Pani,
Michael Puerrer,
Sanjay Reddy,
Thomas Sotiriou,
Salvatore Vitale,
Nicolas Yunes,
K. G. Arun,
Enrico Barausse,
Masha Baryakhtar,
Richard Brito,
Andrea Maselli,
Tim Dietrich,
William East,
Ian Harry,
Tanja Hinderer,
Geraint Pratten,
Lijing Shao,
Maaretn van de Meent
, et al. (4 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
Future gravitational-wave observations will enable unprecedented and unique science in extreme gravity and fundamental physics answering questions about the nature of dynamical spacetimes, the nature of dark matter and the nature of compact objects.
Future gravitational-wave observations will enable unprecedented and unique science in extreme gravity and fundamental physics answering questions about the nature of dynamical spacetimes, the nature of dark matter and the nature of compact objects.
△ Less
Submitted 10 September, 2019; v1 submitted 21 March, 2019;
originally announced March 2019.
-
Black Hole Superradiance Signatures of Ultralight Vectors
Authors:
Masha Baryakhtar,
Robert Lasenby,
Mae Teo
Abstract:
The process of superradiance can extract angular momentum and energy from astrophysical black holes (BHs) to populate gravitationally-bound states with an exponentially large number of light bosons. We analytically calculate superradiant growth rates for vectors around rotating BHs in the regime where the vector Compton wavelength is much larger than the BH size. Spin-1 bound states have superradi…
▽ More
The process of superradiance can extract angular momentum and energy from astrophysical black holes (BHs) to populate gravitationally-bound states with an exponentially large number of light bosons. We analytically calculate superradiant growth rates for vectors around rotating BHs in the regime where the vector Compton wavelength is much larger than the BH size. Spin-1 bound states have superradiance times as short as a second around stellar BHs, growing up to a thou- sand times faster than their spin-0 counterparts. The fast rates allow us to use measurements of rapidly spinning BHs in X-ray binaries to exclude a wide range of masses for weakly-coupled spin-1 particles, $5 \times 10^{-14} - 2 \times 10^{-11}$ eV; lighter masses in the range $6 \times 10^{-20} - 2 \times 10^{-17}$ eV start to be constrained by supermassive BH spin measurements at a lower level of confidence. We also explore routes to detection of new vector particles possible with the advent of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy. The LIGO-Virgo collaboration could discover hints of a new light vector particle in statistical analyses of masses and spins of merging BHs. Vector annihilations source continuous monochromatic gravitational radiation which could be observed by current GW observatories. At design sensitivity, Advanced LIGO may measure up to thousands of annihilation signals from within the Milky Way, while hundreds of BHs born in binary mergers across the observable universe may superradiate vector bound states and become new beacons of monochromatic gravitational waves.
△ Less
Submitted 22 August, 2017; v1 submitted 17 April, 2017;
originally announced April 2017.
-
Black Hole Mergers and the QCD Axion at Advanced LIGO
Authors:
Asimina Arvanitaki,
Masha Baryakhtar,
Savas Dimopoulos,
Sergei Dubovsky,
Robert Lasenby
Abstract:
In the next few years Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) may see gravitational waves (GWs) from thousands of black hole (BH) mergers. This marks the beginning of a new precision tool for physics. Here we show how to search for new physics beyond the standard model using this tool, in particular the QCD axion in the mass range ma ~ 10^-14 to 10^-10 eV. Axions (or any bosons) in this mass range cause rapidly rot…
▽ More
In the next few years Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) may see gravitational waves (GWs) from thousands of black hole (BH) mergers. This marks the beginning of a new precision tool for physics. Here we show how to search for new physics beyond the standard model using this tool, in particular the QCD axion in the mass range ma ~ 10^-14 to 10^-10 eV. Axions (or any bosons) in this mass range cause rapidly rotating BHs to shed their spin into a large cloud of axions in atomic Bohr orbits around the BH, through the effect of superradiance (SR). This results in a gap in the mass vs. spin distribution of BHs when the BH size is comparable to the axion's Compton wavelength. By measuring the spin and mass of the merging objects observed at LIGO, we could verify the presence and shape of the gap in the BH distribution produced by the axion.
The axion cloud can also be discovered through the GWs it radiates via axion annihilations or level transitions. A blind monochromatic GW search may reveal up to 10^5 BHs radiating through axion annihilations, at distinct frequencies within ~3% of $2 ma. Axion transitions probe heavier axions and may be observable in future GW observatories. The merger events are perfect candidates for a targeted GW search. If the final BH has high spin, a SR cloud may grow and emit monochromatic GWs from axion annihilations. We may observe the SR evolution in real time.
△ Less
Submitted 2 March, 2017; v1 submitted 13 April, 2016;
originally announced April 2016.
-
Discovering the QCD Axion with Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
Authors:
Asimina Arvanitaki,
Masha Baryakhtar,
Xinlu Huang
Abstract:
Advanced LIGO may be the first experiment to detect gravitational waves. Through superradiance of stellar black holes, it may also be the first experiment to discover the QCD axion with decay constant above the GUT scale. When an axion's Compton wavelength is comparable to the size of a black hole, the axion binds to the black hole, forming a "gravitational atom." Through the superradiance process…
▽ More
Advanced LIGO may be the first experiment to detect gravitational waves. Through superradiance of stellar black holes, it may also be the first experiment to discover the QCD axion with decay constant above the GUT scale. When an axion's Compton wavelength is comparable to the size of a black hole, the axion binds to the black hole, forming a "gravitational atom." Through the superradiance process, the number of axions occupying the bound levels grows exponentially, extracting energy and angular momentum from the black hole. Axions transitioning between levels of the gravitational atom and axions annihilating to gravitons can produce observable gravitational wave signals. The signals are long-lasting, monochromatic, and can be distinguished from ordinary astrophysical sources. We estimate up to O(1) transition events at aLIGO for an axion between 10^-11 and 10^-10 eV and up to 10^4 annihilation events for an axion between 10^-13 and 10^-11 eV. In the event of a null search, aLIGO can constrain the axion mass for a range of rapidly spinning black hole formation rates. Axion annihilations are also promising for much lighter masses at future lower-frequency gravitational wave observatories; the rates have large uncertainties, dominated by supermassive black hole spin distributions. Our projections for aLIGO are robust against perturbations from the black hole environment and account for our updated exclusion on the QCD axion of 6*10^-13 eV < ma < 2*10^-11 eV suggested by stellar black hole spin measurements.
△ Less
Submitted 23 March, 2015; v1 submitted 9 November, 2014;
originally announced November 2014.