Seeing in the Dark: Gravitational Waves from Resonant Production of Dark Photon Dark Matter
hep-ph, astro-ph.CO
Submitted: 2026-10-08
Updated: 2026-10-08
Comments: 13 pages, 2 figures
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Ultralight dark photons (DPs) are well-motivated dark matter candidates.
Abstract
Ultralight dark photons (DPs) are well-motivated dark matter candidates. A promising yet underexplored mechanism for their relic abundance is parametric resonance in the Abelian-Higgs model that generates the DP mass. We advance previous analytical studies through dedicated 3D lattice simulations that capture important nonlinear effects, including backreaction and relic partitioning between the dark Higgs and DPs. We further predict the associated stochastic gravitational-wave (GW) signal, which can be within reach of a broad range of detectors, opening a new avenue to probe ultralight DP dark matter.
Sources
- Massive hidden photons as lukewarm dark matter
- WISPy Cold Dark Matter
- Vector Dark Matter from Inflationary Fluctuations
- Dark Sectors 2016 Workshop: Community Report
- Dark photon limits: a handbook
- Production of Purely Gravitational Dark Matter: The Case of Fermion and Vector Boson
- Completely Dark Photons from Gravitational Particle Production During Inflation
- Light Dark Photon Dark Matter from Inflation
- Relic Abundance of Dark Photon Dark Matter
- Dark Photon Dark Matter Produced by Axion Oscillations
- Vector dark matter production at the end of inflation
- Dark photon dark matter from an oscillating dilaton
- Parametric Resonance Production of Ultralight Vector Dark Matter
- Dark Photon Dark Matter from a Network of Cosmic Strings
- Dark Photon Dark Matter from Cosmic Strings and Gravitational Wave Background
- Status of Dark Photons
- The Dark Photon: a 2026 Perspective
- Equilibrium State of a Massless Self-Interacting Scalar Field in the De Sitter Background
- The charged inflaton and its gauge fields: preheating and initial conditions for reheating
- Direct constraints on the dark matter self-interaction cross-section from the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56
Related papers
- Classification of g-modes for neutron stars with a strong transition: Novel universal relation including slow stable hybrid stars
- Higgsino Dark Matter Interpretation of the LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV Nuclear-Recoil Event
- A Unified Bogoliubov Approach to Primordial Gravitational Waves: From Inflation to Reheating
- Probing Memory-Burdened Primordial Black Holes with High-Energy Neutrinos
- Enhanced Dark Matter Quantum Sensing via Phase-Space Geometric Interferometry
- Axions as Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Dark Radiation