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

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 $10^{-13}\mathrm{eV}\lesssim m_V\lesssim 3\times 10^{-12}\mathrm{eV}$. By including also higher azimuthal modes, similar constraints apply to axion-like particles in the mass range $6\times 10^{-13}\mathrm{eV}\lesssim m_{\mathrm{ALP}}\lesssim 10^{-11}\mathrm{eV}$. 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 $10^{-19}\mathrm{eV}\lesssim m_V,m_{\mathrm{ALP}}\lesssim 10^{-13}\mathrm{eV}$, 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.

24 pages, 12 pages. Includes supplemental datafile

References in corpus (21)

• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Can environmental effects spoil precision gravitational-wave astrophysics?
• Discovering the QCD Axion with Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
• Echoes of ECOs: gravitational-wave signatures of exotic compact objects and of quantum corrections at the horizon scale
• Instability of the massive Klein-Gordon field on the Kerr spacetime
• Gravitational wave searches for ultralight bosons with LIGO and LISA
• Black holes as particle detectors: evolution of superradiant instabilities
• Superradiant instabilities in astrophysical systems
• Stochastic and resolvable gravitational waves from ultralight bosons
• A Determination of the Spin of the Black Hole Primary in LMC X-1
• Bosenova collapse of axion cloud around a rotating black hole
• An instability of higher-dimensional rotating black holes
• Linear mode stability of Kerr-Newman and its quasinormal modes
• Kerr black holes with synchronised hair: an analytic model and dynamical formation
• A scalar field condensation instability of rotating anti-de Sitter black holes
• Ultraspinning instability of rotating black holes
• Viscous Torque and Dissipation in the Inner Region of a Thin Accretion Disk: Implications for Measuring Black Hole Spin
• Effective stability against superradiance of Kerr black holes with synchronised hair
• A force beyond the Standard Model - Status of the quest for hidden photons
• Doppler disc tomography applied to low mass AGN spin

Cited by in corpus (189)

• New experimental approaches in the search for axion-like particles
• Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
• The landscape of QCD axion models
• Prospects for Fundamental Physics with LISA
• New Horizons for Fundamental Physics with LISA
• Dark photon limits: a handbook
• Black hole superradiance of self-interacting scalar fields
• GW190521 as a merger of Proca stars: a potential new vector boson of $8.7\times 10^{-13}$ eV
• Precision Metrology Meets Cosmology: Improved Constraints on Ultralight Dark Matter from Atom-Cavity Frequency Comparisons
• The Spectra of Gravitational Atoms
• The QCD Axion Window and Low Scale Inflation
• New Physics in the Rayleigh-Jeans Tail of the CMB
• Unifying of Inflation with Early and Late Dark Energy Epochs in Axion $F(R)$ Gravity
• Euclidean wormholes, baby universes, and their impact on particle physics and cosmology
• Searching for Dark Photon Dark Matter with Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Gravitational Collider Physics
• Superradiance evolution of black hole shadows revisited
• Direct constraints on ultra-light boson mass from searches for continuous gravitational waves
• Probing the existence of ultralight bosons with a single gravitational-wave measurement
• Searches for Continuous-Wave Gravitational Radiation
• Upper Limit on the QCD Axion Mass from Isolated Neutron Star Cooling
• Dark Photon Oscillations in Our Inhomogeneous Universe
• Massive Vector Fields in Rotating Black-Hole Spacetimes: Separability and Quasinormal Modes
• Black Hole Spin Constraints on the Mass Spectrum and Number of Axion-like Fields
• Directed searches for gravitational waves from ultralight bosons
• Characterizing the continuous gravitational-wave signal from boson clouds around Galactic isolated black holes
• Gravitational wave signatures of ultralight vector bosons from black hole superradiance
• Ultralight boson cloud depletion in binary systems
• Black hole superradiant instability from ultralight spin-2 fields
• Geometric Inflation and Dark Energy with Axion $F(R)$ Gravity
• Massive Boson Superradiant Instability of Black Holes: Nonlinear Growth, Saturation, and Gravitational Radiation
• Axionic instabilities and new black hole solutions
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• Constraints on ultralight scalar bosons within black hole spin measurements from LIGO-Virgo's GWTC-2
• Instability of the Proca field on Kerr spacetime
• Search for ultralight bosons in Cygnus X-1 with Advanced LIGO
• Looking for ultralight dark matter near supermassive black holes
• Audible Axions
• Superradiant evolution of the shadow and photon ring of Sgr A${}^{\star }$
• Gravitational wave probes of axion-like particles
• Fuzzy Dark Matter Soliton Cores around Supermassive Black Holes
• Modeling and searching for a stochastic gravitational-wave background from ultralight vector bosons
• Probing astrophysical environment with eccentric extreme mass-ratio inspirals
• Axion boson stars
• Aspects of Nonlinear Effect on Black Hole Superradiance
• Searching for vector dark matter with an optomechanical accelerometer
• Dark photon superradiance: Electrodynamics and multimessenger signals
• The problem with Proca: ghost instabilities in self-interacting vector fields
• Behavior of axion-like particles in smoothed out domain-like magnetic fields
• Searching for ultralight bosons within spin measurements of a population of binary black hole mergers
• Aspects of Axion $F(R)$ Gravity
• Impact of multiple modes on the black-hole superradiant instability
• A semi-coherent analysis method to search for continuous gravitational waves emitted by ultra-light boson clouds around spinning black holes
• SuperRad: Modeling the black hole superradiance gravitational waveform
• Probing the Nature of Black Holes: Deep in the mHz Gravitational-Wave Sky
• Electromagnetic Signatures of Dark Photon Superradiance
• Follow-up signals from superradiant instabilities of black hole merger remnants
• Destabilization of black holes and stars by generalized Proca fields
• Mass, Spin, and Ultralight Boson Constraints from the Intermediate Mass Black Hole in the Tidal Disruption Event 3XMM J215022.4-055108
• Motion in time-periodic backgrounds with applications to ultralight dark matter haloes at galactic centers
• Quasinormal modes of massive vector fields on the Kerr spacetime
• Hidden-Sector Modifications to Gravitational Waves From Binary Inspirals
• Fate of scalar dark matter solitons around supermassive galactic black holes
• Dark photon vortex formation and dynamics
• Axion-like Particles Implications for High-Energy Astrophysics
• Vortex String Formation in Black Hole Superradiance of a Dark Photon with the Higgs Mechanism
• Tidal effects and disruption in superradiant clouds: a numerical investigation
• Cosmic Birefringence Triggered by Dark Matter Domination
• Superradiant Production of Heavy Dark Matter from Primordial Black Holes
• Axion Astrophysics
• Ultralight bosons for strong gravity applications from simple Standard Model extensions
• Neutron Stars with Baryon Number Violation, Probing Dark Sectors
• Photon Ring Astrometry for Superradiant Clouds
• Worldline effective field theory of inspiralling black hole binaries in presence of dark photon and axionic dark matter
• Stellar probes of dark sector-photon interactions
• Constraints on the ultralight scalar boson from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo's first three observing runs using the stochastic gravitational-wave background
• Dynamical Friction in fuzzy dark matter: circular orbits
• Kinetic Axion $F(R)$ Gravity Inflation
• Friendship in the Axiverse: Late-time direct and astrophysical signatures of early-time nonlinear axion dynamics
• Black hole superradiant instability for massive spin-2 fields
• Superradiant axion clouds around asteroid-mass primordial black holes
• Quenching Mechanisms of Photon Superradiance
• Quasinormal modes of Proca fields in a Schwarzschild-AdS spacetime
• Hints of dark photon dark matter from observations and hydrodynamical simulations of the low-redshift Lyman-$\alpha$ forest
• Can fermion-boson stars reconcile multi-messenger observations of compact stars?
• Superradiance in Kerr-like black holes
• Remarks on the weak cosmic censorship conjecture of RN-AdS black holes with cloud of strings and quintessence under the scalar field
• Plasma-photon interaction in curved spacetime I: formalism and quasibound states around nonspinning black holes
• Constraints on Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter with Quadratic Couplings
• Effective field theory for black holes with induced scalar charges
• Sterile neutrino dark matter catalyzed by a very light dark photon
• Impact of relativistic waveforms in LISA's science objectives with extreme-mass-ratio inspirals
• Dark photon dark matter from an oscillating dilaton
• Methods and prospects for gravitational wave searches targeting ultralight vector boson clouds around known black holes
• Evaporation Barrier for Dark Matter in Celestial Bodies
• Instability and backreaction of massive spin-2 fields around black holes
• Forecasts for Low Spin Black Hole Spectroscopy in Horndeski Gravity
• Signatures of Einstein-Maxwell dilaton-axion gravity from the observed jet power and the radiative efficiency
• Gravitational Memory and Compact Extra Dimensions
• Evolution of black hole shadows from superradiance
• Gravitational wave probes of particle dark matter: a review
• Spin-2 dark matter from anisotropic Universe in bigravity
• Maglev for Dark Matter: Dark-photon and axion dark matter sensing with levitated superconductors
• Evolution of diffuse scalar clouds around binary black holes
• Massive vector fields in Kerr--Newman and Kerr--Sen black hole spacetimes
• Slaying Axion-Like Particles via Gravitational Waves and Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transition
• The Rapidly Spinning Intermediate-Mass Black Hole 3XMM J150052.0+015452
• Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detection for haloscope axion searches
• Ultralight dark matter detection with levitated ferromagnets
• Rotating black hole in $f(R)$ theory
• Distortion of neutrino oscillations by dark photon dark matter
• Constraint on the mass of fuzzy dark matter from the rotation curve of the Milky Way
• Superradiance in Stars: Non-equilibrium approach to damping of fields in stellar media
• Superradiance in massive vector fields with spatially varying mass
• Hidden Sector and Gravity
• Superradiant instability of a charged regular black hole
• Swampland Bounds on Dark Sectors
• Self-Gravity Effects of Ultralight Boson Clouds Formed by Black Hole Superradiance
• Going all the way in the search for WIMP dark matter at the muon collider through precision measurements
• Curl up with a good $\mathbf{B}$: Detecting ultralight dark matter with differential magnetometry
• Near-horizon microstructure and superradiant instability of black holes
• Dark photon superradiance quenched by dark matter
• Bino-wino coannihilation as a prediction in the $E_7$ unification of families
• Phenomenology of the companion-axion model: photon couplings
• Revisiting Isocurvature Bounds on the Minimal QCD Axion
• Direct Detection of Ultralight Dark Matter via Astronomical Ephemeris
• Superradiant Instability of Magnetic Black Holes
• Scalar dark matter vortex stabilization with black holes
• Constraining Light Dark Photons from GW190517 and GW190426_152155
• Gravitationally produced Dark Matter and primordial black holes
• Getting More Out of Black Hole Superradiance: a Statistically Rigorous Approach to Ultralight Boson Constraints from Black Hole Spin Measurements
• Constrains of the axion-like particle from black hole spin superradiance
• Dark photon bursts from compact binary systems and constraints
• Black Holes as Fermion Factories
• Shaping Dark Photon Spectral Distortions
• Superradiant instabilities of massive bosons around exotic compact objects
• Search for continuous gravitational wave signals from luminous dark photon superradiance clouds with LVK O3 observations
• Massive vector field perturbations on extremal and near-extremal static black holes
• Minimal solution to the axion isocurvature problem from a nonminimal coupling
• $R^2$ Gravity Effects on the Kinetic Axion Phase Space
• Aspects of Axions and ALPs Phenomenology
• Dark photon dark matter and fast radio bursts
• Ultralight boson constraints from gravitational wave observations of spinning binary black holes
• Kinetic Axion Dark Matter in String Corrected $f(R)$ Gravity
• Static axionlike dark matter clouds around magnetized rotating wormholes -- probe limit case
• Axion-like dark matter clouds around rotating black holes
• Pati-Salam Axion
• Massive tensor field perturbations on extremal and near-extremal static black holes
• Future targets for light gauge bosons from cosmic strings
• Hair is complicated: Gravitational waves from stable and unstable boson-star mergers
• New application of the Killing vector field formalism: Modified periodic potential and two-level profiles of the axionic dark matter distribution
• Methodology for constraining ultralight vector bosons with gravitational wave searches targeting merger remnant black holes
• Effects of Superradiance in Active Galactic Nuclei
• On the Interaction between Ultralight Bosons and Quantum-Corrected Black Holes
• Co-Interacting Dark Matter
• New model of spontaneous scalarization of black holes induced by curvature and matter
• Cosmic Birefringence as a probe of dark matter nature: Sterile neutrino and dipolar dark matter
• Black-hole hair from vector dark matter accretion
• Probing Particle Physics with Gravitational Waves
• Pre-supernova Ultra-light Axion-like Particles
• Axion spectra and the associated x-ray spectra of low-mass stars
• Weak nuclear decays deep-underground as a probe of axion dark matter
• Evolution and detection of vector superradiant instabilities
• Eccentric mergers of binary Proca stars
• Parametric-resonance based phenomenology of gravitating axion configurations
• Axion sourcing in dense stellar matter via CP-violating couplings
• Constraining dark photon properties with Asteroseismology
• Adiabatic Conversion of ALPs into Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Particle dispersion in the classical vector dark matter background
• Gravitational waves from superradiant instabilities of rotating black holes
• Quasinormal modes of Plebański-Demiański black hole in the near-Nariai regime
• Scalar field dynamics around black holes: superradiant instabilities and binary evolution
• The SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey: Constraints on Ultra-light Axion Dark Matter through Galaxy Cluster Number Counts
• Immortality through the dark forces: Dark-charge primordial black holes as dark matter candidates
• Exploring the viability of pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson as ultralight dark matter in a mass range relevant for strong gravity applications
• Particle Conversions Beyond the WKB Approximation and Solar-Induced Gravitational Waves from Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Co-interacting dark matter and conformally coupled light scalars
• Nonlinear Evolution of unstable Charged de Sitter Black Holes with Hyperboloidal Formalism
• Accreting Schwarzschild-like compact object: Plasma-photon interaction and stability
• Supercooled Audible Axions
• Black Hole Solutions in Dark Photon Models with Higher Order Corrections
• Black Hole Superradiance in f(R) Gravities
• Ultralight bosonic dark matter in white dwarfs and potential observational consequences
• Superradiant black hole rocket
• The Dark Photon: a 2026 Perspective
• Ring formation from black hole superradiance through repeated particle production on bound orbits
• Physics beyond the Standard Model with the DSA-2000
• Effect of accretion on scalar superradiant instability
• Plasma-photon interaction in curved spacetime II: collisions, thermal corrections, and superradiant instabilities