Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The cold dark matter model successfully describes the Universe on large scales, yet faces challenges at sub-galactic scales. Ultralight dark matter (ULDM), with particle masses around $10^{-22} \mathrm{eV}$, offers a promising solution to these small-scale issues. Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs), designed to detect nanohertz gravitational waves, can also provide a sensitive probe for ULDM signals. In this work, we perform a Bayesian search for ULDM using PTA data sets, focusing on two types of signals: the oscillatory gravitational potential from scalar ULDM and the fifth-force interaction mediated by dark photon dark matter (DPDM). We incorporate pulsar distances in the analysis to better model the ULDM density. No statistically significant evidence for ULDM has been found, therefore we place 95% confidence-level upper limits on the relevant parameters. For scalar ULDM, our analysis does not exclude the scenario in which ULDM constitutes all of dark matter. The constraints from PPTA-DR3 show significant improvements over the earlier PPTA-DR2 (2018 Preview) across most of the mass range, and are consistent with the recent uncorrelated limits from other PTAs. We also present for the first time the DPDM constraints using EPTA data. The obtained bounds on the DPDM from the EPTA-DR2 and PPTA-DR3 are comparable to existing constraints.
DOI: 10.1103/wff3-b1fs
Authors: Xiao-Song Hu, Siyuan Chen, Kuo Liu, Xingjiang Zhu, Shi-Yi Zhao, Wu Jiang, John Antoniadis, N. D. Ramesh Bhat, Amodio Carleo, Shi Dai, Valentina Di Marco, Huanchen Hu, Wenhua Ling, Yang Liu, Saurav Mishra, Christopher J Russell, Ryan M. Shannon, Clemente Smarra, Jingbo Wang, Lin Wang, Andrew Zic
Institutions: Beijing Normal University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Curtin University, Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, The University of Melbourne, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Technische Universität Dresden, Swinburne University of Technology, CSIRO Scientific Computing, University of Padua, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova, Lishui University
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Università degli Studi di Milano, Australian Government, Science and Technology Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, University of East Anglia, European Commission, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Beijing Normal University, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Universität Bielefeld, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Peking University, Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, ASTRON, Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Science and Technology Facilities Council, European Research Council, Australian Research Council, Institut national des sciences de l'Univers, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules, Institut de physique, NextGenerationEU
OpenAlex ID: W7160195309
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