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  • Open Access

X-ray constraints on dark photon tridents

Tim Linden1,*, Thong T. Q. Nguyen1,†, and Tim M. P. Tait2,‡

  • *Contact author: linden@fysik.su.se
  • †Contact author: thong.nguyen@fysik.su.se
  • ‡Contact author: ttait@uci.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 023026 – Published 17 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/37gn-x3y1

Abstract

Dark photons that are sufficiently light and/or weakly interacting represent a compelling vision of dark matter. Dark photon decay into three photons, which we call the dark photon trident, can be the dominant channel when the dark photon mass falls below the electron pair threshold and can produce a significant flux of x rays. We use 16 years of data from Interrnational Gamma-Ray Astro Physics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)/Spectrometer of INTEGRAL (SPI) to constrain sub-MeV dark photon decay, producing new worlds-best constraints on the kinetic mixing parameter for dark photon masses between 90 and 1022 keV, and comment on the potential for future x-ray observatories to discover the trident decay process.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 023026– Published 17 July, 2025
  • Received 25 July 2024
  • Accepted 16 June 2025
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