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

10 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

10 Pith papers citing it
abstract

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 \emph{direct} constraints on the mass of dark photons in the mass range $ 10^{-13}\,{\rm eV}\lesssim m_V \lesssim 3\times 10^{-12}\,{\rm eV}$. By including also higher azimuthal modes, similar constraints apply to axion-like particles in the mass range $6\times10^{-13}\,{\rm eV}\lesssim m_{\rm ALP} \lesssim 10^{-11}\, {\rm eV}$. Likewise, mass and spin distributions of supermassive BHs --~as measured through continuum fitting, K$\alpha$ iron line, or with the future space-based gravitational-wave detector LISA~-- imply indirect bounds in the mass range approximately $10^{-19}\,{\rm eV}\lesssim m_V, m_{\rm ALP} \lesssim 10^{-13}\, {\rm eV}$, for both axion-like particles and dark photons. Overall, superradiance allows to explore a region of approximately $8$ orders of magnitude in the mass of ultralight bosons.

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representative citing papers

String Axiverse Enhancement of Superradiant Dark Matter Production

hep-ph · 2026-06-18 · conditional · novelty 6.0

O(100–10^5) light string axions enhance PBH spin-up during Hawking evaporation, boosting superradiant dark-matter cloud efficiency and expanding the micro-boson-star parameter space while contributing negligibly to ΔN_eff.

Scalar fields around black hole binaries in LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA

gr-qc · 2025-10-20 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

Semi-analytic waveform model for scalar environments around black hole binaries is validated against numerical relativity and applied to LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data to obtain upper limits on scalar densities with tentative evidence in GW190728.

Weak nuclear decays deep-underground as a probe of axion dark matter

hep-ph · 2024-12-30 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

A framework is developed to predict axion-induced time modulations in weak nuclear decays, used to derive constraints on the axion decay constant from reanalyzed Gran Sasso data on 40K and 137Cs and to propose future sensitivity to higher masses.

High-Quality Axion Dark Matter at Gravitational Wave Interferometers

hep-ph · 2025-09-17 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

In gauged U(1) completions enabling high-quality axion dark matter, cosmic string loops generate a stochastic gravitational wave background with an infrared break frequency that exceeds foregrounds above 10^14 GeV breaking scales and offers a probe at interferometers.

Superradiance -- the 2020 Edition

gr-qc · 2015-01-26 · unverdicted · novelty 4.0

Black-hole superradiance extracts energy via the ergoregion and can trigger instabilities with applications to dark matter, beyond-Standard-Model physics, and laboratory analogs.

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