Dark photon bursts from compact binary systems and constraints

TL;DR

This paper derives new bounds on the coupling strength of dark photons emitted by compact binary systems using gravitational wave data, independent of dark matter assumptions.

Contribution

It provides the first bounds on dark photon coupling constants from interferometer observations without assuming dark photons are dark matter.

Findings

Upper bounds on ^2 range from 10^{-37} to 10^{-33} for massless dark photons.

For massive dark photons, bounds are from 10^{-38} to 10^{-31} in the mass range 10^{-19} eV to 10^{-11} eV.

First constraints derived from gravitational wave observations independent of dark matter hypothesis.

Abstract

In this work, we consider the burst signal of the dark photon, the hypothetical vector boson of the $U(1)_B$ or $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge group, generated by a compact binary star system. The absence of the signal in the laser interferometer puts bounds on the coupling constant $\epsilon$ to the ordinary matter. It turns out that if the dark photon is massless, $\epsilon^2$ is on the order of $10^{-37}-10^{-33}$ at most; in the massive case, the upper bound of $\epsilon^2$ is about $10^{-38}-10^{-31}$ in the mass range from $10^{-19}$ eV to $10^{-11}$ eV. These are the first bounds derived from the interferometer observations independent of the assumption of dark photons being dark matter.