Direct multi-model dark-matter search with gravitational-wave interferometers using data from the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run

TL;DR

This work leverages LIGO-Livingston and LIGO-Hanford O4a data to perform a direct, multi-model search for ultralight dark matter, focusing on scalar dilatons, vector dark photons, and tensor spin-2 bosons. Using three complementary pipelines—Cross-Correlation, BSD excess-power, and LPSD—the analysis targets nearly monochromatic, coherent DM-induced strains across a broad mass range, carefully accounting for coherence time, detector response, and travel-time effects. No evidence for DM is found, but the study places the most stringent to-date upper limits on all three DM models, often improving prior constraints by one to several orders of magnitude and, for tensor DM, surpassing fifth-force experiments by up to five orders of magnitude. These results establish gravitational-wave interferometers as powerful laboratories for multi-model direct DM detection and set the stage for future, more sensitive searches as GW detectors continue to improve.

Abstract

Gravitational-wave detectors can probe the existence of dark matter with exquisite sensitivity. Here, we perform a search for three kinds of dark matter -- dilatons (spin-0), dark photons (spin-1) and tensor bosons (spin-2) -- using three independent methods on the first part of the most recent data from the fourth observing run of LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA. Each form of dark matter could have interacted with different standard-model particles in the instruments, causing unique differential strains on the interferometers. While we do not find any evidence for a signal, we place the most stringent upper limits to-date on each of these models. For scalars with masses between $[4\times 10^{-14},1.5\times 10^{-13}]$ eV that couple to photons or electrons, our constraints improve upon those from the third observing run by one order of magnitude, with the tightest limit of $\sim 10^{-20}\,\text{GeV}^{-1}$ at a mass of $\sim2\times 10^{-13}\text{ eV}$. For vectors with masses between $[7\times 10^{-13},8.47\times 10^{-12}]$ eV that couple to baryons, our constraints supersede those from MICROSCOPE and Eöt-Wash by one to two orders of magnitude, reaching a minimum of $\sim 5\times 10^{-24}$ at a mass of $\sim 10^{-12}$ eV. For tensors with masses of $[4\times 10^{-14},8.47\times 10^{-12}]$ eV (the full mass range analyzed) that couple via a Yukawa interaction, our constraints surpass those from fifth-force experiments by four to five orders of magnitude, achieving a limit as low as $\sim 8\times 10^{-9}$ at $\sim2\times 10^{-13}$ eV. Our results show that gravitational-wave interferometers have become frontiers for new physics and laboratories for direct multi-model dark-matter detection.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Upper limits on the coupling strengths of ultralight scalar, vector and tensor bosons to standard-model particles in LIGO. Solid lines denote the constraints from this work ("cross-correlation," "BSD excess power," and "LPSD"). The dashed and dotted-dashed lines indicate constraints from other experiments ("Eöt-Wash" and "MICROSCOPE") and from other searches on GW interferometer data ("GEO600", "O3 LPSD" and "O3 acceleration effect"). (a) Our constraints apply to the coupling of dilatons to both photons and to electrons. They improve upon those from previous searches with GW interferometers Vermeulen:2021epaFukusumi:2023kqdGottel:2024cfj and beat those from O3 by one order of magnitude. Constraints from Eöt-Wash Su:1994guSchlamminger:2007ht and MICROSCOPE Touboul:2012uiBerge:2017ovy correspond to the coupling of the dilaton to the electron. (b) The constraints on vector dark photon DM improve upon existing limits by a couple of order of magnitudes in the dark-photon/baryon coupling constant. To produce limits on dark photon/baryon minus lepton coupling, $U(1)_{\rm B-L}$, these limits should be multiplied by two. (c) For the first time, we derive constraints on tensor DM using GW interferometers, which are up to five orders of magnitude superior to those obtained indirectly from fifth-force experiments Sereno:2006mwMurata:2014nra. Note that for tensor bosons, using the calculated strain amplitudes in Refs. Marzola:2017lbtArmaleo:2020efr would require multiplying the limits on the tensor boson coupling constant by two.
• Figure 2: Scalar dark matter transfer functions in dB, considering beamsplitter as well as arm test mirror size oscillations. The dotted lines show the LHO transfer functions, and the others show LLO results. As one can see, while the effect has reduced sligthly in LHO between O3 and O4a, it has increased considerably in LLO, making LLO the more sensitive detector in O4a.