# Dark Photon Dark Matter from a Network of Cosmic Strings

## TL;DR

This paper explores how ultra-light dark photons generated by cosmic string networks could account for all dark matter, especially for masses around 10^{-22} eV, highlighting a novel production mechanism.

## Contribution

It introduces a new mechanism for dark photon production from cosmic strings, demonstrating their potential to constitute dark matter at extremely low masses.

## Key findings

- Dark photons from cosmic strings are nonrelativistic today.
- They can account for all dark matter at masses as low as 10^{-22} eV.
- The production mechanism is viable for near-global Abelian-Higgs strings.

## Abstract

We study the production of ultra-light dark photons from a network of near-global, Abelian-Higgs cosmic strings. We find that dark photons produced in this way are nonrelativistic today and can make up all of the dark matter for dark photon masses as small as $m_A \sim 10^{-22} \, \mathrm{eV}$.