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

Xiao Xue1, Zi-Qing Xia2, Xingjiang Zhu3,4,5, Yue Zhao6, Jing Shu7,8,9,10,11,12,*, Qiang Yuan2,10,13,†, N. D. Ramesh Bhat14, Andrew D. Cameron5,15,16, Shi Dai17,15 et al. (PPTA Collaboration)

Shi Dai17,15, Yi Feng18, Boris Goncharov4,5, George Hobbs15, Eric Howard15,19, Richard N. Manchester15, Aditya Parthasarathy16,20, Daniel J. Reardon5,16, Christopher J. Russell21, Ryan M. Shannon5,16, Renée Spiewak16,22, 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
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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012022 – Published 22 February, 2022

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

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∼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 3×10−22 eV (10−22 eV) for the U(1)B (U(1)B−L) scenario.

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012022– Published 22 February, 2022
  • Received 1 December 2020
  • Revised 8 June 2021
  • Accepted 10 December 2021
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