Work

Seeing in the Dark: Gravitational Waves from Resonant Production of Dark Photon Dark Matter

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

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.

Source: arXiv (Cornell University)

Authors: Cui, Yanou, Saha, Pankaj, Sfakianakis, Evangelos I.

Institutions: University of California, Riverside, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, Harvard University, The University of Texas at Austin

Language: English

Topic: Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7221729294

Cites: 52

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Related to: 10