A gravitational-wave limit on the Chandrasekhar mass of dark matter

TL;DR

This paper uses gravitational-wave data to set limits on the properties of dissipative dark matter, specifically constraining the Chandrasekhar mass and particle characteristics through observations of black hole mergers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to study dissipative dark matter models using gravitational-wave observations, linking astrophysical data to particle physics constraints.

Findings

Limits the dark matter Chandrasekhar mass to below 1.4 solar masses at 99.9% confidence.

Suggests the dark proton mass is heavier than 0.95 GeV.

Constrains the dark molecular energy-level spacing to near 10^{-3} eV.

Abstract

We explore a new paradigm to study dissipative dark matter models using gravitational-wave observations. We consider a dark atomic model which predicts the formation of binary black holes such as GW190425 while obeying constraints from large-scale structure, and improving on the missing satellite problem. Using LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave data from 12th September 2015 to 1st October 2019, we show that interpreting GW190425 as a dark matter black-hole binary limits the Chandrasekhar mass for dark matter to be below 1.4 $M_\odot$ at $> 99.9\%$ confidence implying that the dark proton is heavier than 0.95 GeV, while also suggesting that the molecular energy-level spacing of dark molecules lies near $10^{-3}$ eV and constraining the cooling rate of dark matter at low temperatures.