Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012022 (2022) - High-precision search for dark photon dark matter with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

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High-precision search for dark photon dark matter with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

Xiao Xue, Zi-Qing Xia, Xingjiang Zhu, Yue Zhao, Jing Shu, Qiang Yuan, N. D. Ramesh Bhat, Andrew D. Cameron, Shi Dai, Yi Feng, Boris Goncharov, George Hobbs, Eric Howard, Richard N. Manchester, Aditya Parthasarathy, Daniel J. Reardon, Christopher J. Russell, Ryan M. Shannon, Renée Spiewak, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Jingbo Wang, Lei Zhang, and Songbo Zhang (PPTA Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012022 – Published 22 February 2022

Abstract

The nature of dark matter remains obscure in spite of decades of experimental efforts. The mass of dark matter candidates can span a wide range, and its coupling with the Standard Model sector remains uncertain. All these unknowns make the detection of dark matter extremely challenging. Ultralight dark matter, with $m \sim 10^{- 22}$ eV, is proposed to reconcile the disagreements between observations and predictions from simulations of small-scale structures in the cold dark matter paradigm while remaining consistent with other observations. Because of its large de Broglie wavelength and large local occupation number within galaxies, ultralight dark matter behaves like a coherently oscillating background field with an oscillating frequency dependent on its mass. If the dark matter particle is a spin-1 dark photon, such as the $U {(1)}_{B}$ or $U {(1)}_{B - L}$ gauge boson, it can induce an external oscillating force and lead to displacements of test masses. Such an effect would be observable in the form of periodic variations in the arrival times of radio pulses from highly stable millisecond pulsars. In this study, we search for evidence of ultralight dark photon dark matter (DPDM) using 14-year high-precision observations of 26 pulsars collected with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. While no statistically significant signal is found, we place constraints on coupling constants for the $U {(1)}_{B}$ and $U {(1)}_{B - L}$ DPDM. Compared with other experiments, the limits on the dimensionless coupling constant $ε$ achieved in our study are improved by up to two orders of magnitude when the dark photon mass is smaller than $3 \times 10^{- 22}$ eV ( $10^{- 22}$ eV) for the $U {(1)}_{B}$ ( $U {(1)}_{B - L}$ ) scenario.

Received 1 December 2020
Revised 8 June 2021
Accepted 10 December 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L012022

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Dark matter Radio, microwave, & sub-mm astronomy

Hypothetical gauge bosons Neutron stars & pulsars

Electromagnetic radiation astronomy

Particles & FieldsGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Xiao Xue¹, Zi-Qing Xia², Xingjiang Zhu^3,4,5, Yue Zhao⁶, Jing Shu ^{7,8,9,10,11,12,*}, Qiang Yuan^2,10,13,†, N. D. Ramesh Bhat¹⁴, Andrew D. Cameron^5,15,16, Shi Dai^17,15, Yi Feng¹⁸, Boris Goncharov^4,5, George Hobbs¹⁵, Eric Howard^15,19, Richard N. Manchester¹⁵, Aditya Parthasarathy^16,20, Daniel J. Reardon^5,16, Christopher J. Russell²¹, Ryan M. Shannon^5,16, Renée Spiewak^16,22, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan²³, Jingbo Wang²⁴, Lei Zhang²⁵, and Songbo Zhang²⁶ (PPTA Collaboration)

¹II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany
²Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China
³Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai 519087, China
⁴School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
⁵OzGrav: The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia
⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
⁷CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
⁸School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
⁹CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics, Beijing 100049, China
¹⁰Center for High Energy Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
¹¹School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310024, China
¹²International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific, Beijing/Hangzhou, China
¹³School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
¹⁴International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia
¹⁵Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Epping, New South Wales 1710, Australia
¹⁶Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia
¹⁷School of Science, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia
¹⁸Research Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311121, China
¹⁹Macquarie University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
²⁰Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
²¹CSIRO Scientific Computing, Australian Technology Park, Alexandria, New South Wales 1435, Australia
²²Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
²³National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA
²⁴Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China
²⁵School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
²⁶Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China

^*Corresponding author: jshu@itp.ac.cn
^†Corresponding author: yuanq@pmo.ac.cn