Constraining the mass of dark photons and axion-like particles through black-hole superradiance

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Documents

  • Cardoso, Vitor
  • Oscar J. C. Dias
  • Gavin S. Hartnett
  • Matthew Middleton
  • Paolo Pani
  • Jorge E. Santos

Ultralight bosons and axion-like particles appear naturally in different scenarios and could solve some long-standing puzzles. Their detection is challenging, and all direct methods hinge on unknown couplings to the Standard Model of particle physics. However, the universal coupling to gravity provides model-independent signatures for these fields. We explore here the superradiant instability of spinning black holes triggered in the presence of such fields. The instability taps angular momentum from and limits the maximum spin of astrophysical black holes. We compute, for the first time, the spectrum of the most unstable modes of a massive vector (Proca) field for generic black-hole spin and Proca mass. The observed stability of the inner disk of stellar-mass black holes can be used to derive direct constraints on the mass of dark photons in the mass range 10(-13) eV less than or similar to m(V)

Original languageEnglish
Article number043
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume03
Number of pages27
ISSN1475-7516
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Mar 2018
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • astrophysical black holes, axions, dark matter theory, GR black holes, SPIN, ACCRETION, DISK, PERTURBATIONS, EVOLUTION, EQUATION

ID: 299200553