paper

GW190521 as a merger of Proca stars: a potential new vector boson of eV

arXiv:2009.05376 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.081101

Abstract

Advanced LIGO-Virgo reported a short gravitational-wave signal (GW190521) interpreted as a quasi-circular merger of black holes, one populating the pair-instability supernova gap, forming a remnant black hole of at a luminosity distance of Gpc. With barely visible pre-merger emission, however, GW190521 merits further investigation of the pre-merger dynamics and even of the very nature of the colliding objects. We show that GW190521 is consistent with numerically simulated signals from head-on collisions of two (equal mass and spin) horizonless vector boson stars (aka Proca stars), forming a final black hole with , located at a distance of Mpc. The favoured mass for the ultra-light vector boson constituent of the Proca stars is eV. This provides the first demonstration of close degeneracy between these two theoretical models, for a real gravitational-wave event. Confirmation of the Proca star interpretation, which we find statistically slightly preferred, would provide the first evidence for a long sought dark matter particle.

12 pages, 6 figures, Version Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.Lett, including Supplementary Material

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