Dark Boson Research Articles

Electric Dipole Moments as indirect probes of dark sectors

Dark sectors provide beyond Standard Model scenarios which can address unresolved puzzles, such as the observed dark matter abundance or the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. A naturally small portal to the dark sector is obtained if dark-sector interactions stem from a non-Abelian hidden gauge group that couples through kinetic mixing with the hypercharge boson. In this work, we investigate the phenomenology of such a portal of dimension five in the presence of CP violation, focusing on its signatures in fermion electric dipole moments. We show that, currently unbounded regions of the parameter space from dark photon searches can be indirectly probed with upcoming electron dipole moment experiments for dark boson masses in the range 1 − 100 GeV. We also discuss two particular scenarios where a SU(2)D dark gauge group spontaneously breaks into either an Abelian U(1)D or nothing. In both cases, we show that potentially observable electron dipole moments can be produced in vast regions of the parameter space compatible with current experimental constraints and observed dark matter abundance.

Ultralight dark matter explanation of NANOGrav observations

The angular correlation of pulsar residuals observed by NANOGrav and other pulsar timing array collaborations show evidence in support of the Hellings-Downs correlation expected from stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). In this paper, we offer a nongravitational wave explanation of the observed pulsar timing correlations as caused by an ultralight Lμ−Lτ gauge boson dark matter (ULDM). ULDM can affect the pulsar correlations in two ways. The gravitational potential of vector ULDM gives rise to a Shapiro time delay of the pulsar signals and a nontrivial angular correlation (as compared to the scalar ULDM case). In addition, if the pulsars have a nonzero charge of the dark matter gauge group, then the electric field of the local dark matter causes an oscillation of the pulsar and a corresponding Doppler shift of the pulsar signal. We point out that pulsars carry a significant charge of muons, and thus the Lμ−Lτ vector dark matter contributes to both the Doppler oscillations and the time delay of the pulsar signals. The synergy between these two effects provides a better fit to the shape of the angular correlation function, as observed by the NANOGrav collaboration, compared to the standard SGWB explanation or the SGWB combined with time delay explanations. Our analysis shows that, in addition to the SGWB signal, there may potentially be excess timing residuals attributable to the Lμ−Lτ ULDM. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Probing dark photons from a light scalar at Belle II

In the minimal U(1) extension of the Standard Model (SM), a new gauge boson referred to as “dark photon” is predicted. The dark-photon mass can be generated from an additional Higgs mechanism associated with a dark scalar boson. At B-factories such as Belle II, large numbers of B-mesons are produced and can decay to a kaon plus the dark scalar via the latter’s mixing with the SM Higgs boson. We evaluate the sensitivity of Belle II for the case in which the dark scalar decays exclusively into a pair of dark photons via the new U(1) gauge coupling, and the dark photons are long lived owing to a small kinetic mixing ϵ. We study the experimental signature in which each dark photon decays into a pair of charged leptons, pions, or kaons, resulting in a pair of displaced vertices, and argue that the search is essentially background-free. We perform detailed Monte-Carlo simulations to determine the expected number of signal events at Belle II with an integrated luminosity of 50 ab−1, taking into account the efficiencies for both final-state-particle identification and displaced tracking. We find that for experimentally allowed values of the scalar mixing angle and kinematically allowed dark-photon and dark-scalar masses, the proposed search is uniquely sensitive to the medium-ϵ regime, which is currently mostly unexcluded by experiments.

Dwarf galaxies united by dark bosons

Dwarf galaxies united by dark bosons

Misalignment production of vector boson dark matter from axion-SU(2) inflation

We present a new mechanism to generate a coherently oscillating dark vector field from axion-SU(2) gauge field dynamics during inflation. The SU(2) gauge field acquires a nonzero background sourced by an axion during inflation, and it acquires a mass through spontaneous symmetry breaking after inflation. We find that the coherent oscillation of the dark vector field can account for dark matter in the mass range of 10-13 – 1 eV in a minimal setup. In a more involved scenario, the range can be wider down to the fuzzy dark matter region. One of the dark vector fields can be identified as the dark photon, in which case this mechanism evades the notorious constraints for isocurvature perturbation, statistical anisotropy, and the absence of ghosts that exist in the usual misalignment production scenarios. Phenomenological implications are discussed.

Challenges in interpreting the NANOGrav 15-year dataset as early Universe gravitational waves produced by an ALP induced instability

In this paper, we study a possible early universe source for the recent observation of a stochastic gravitational wave background at the NANOGrav pulsar timing array. The source is a tachyonic instability in a dark gauge field induced by an axionlike particle (ALP), a known source for gravitational waves. We find that relative to the previous analysis with the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset, the current 15-year dataset favors parameter space with a relatively larger axion mass and decay constant. This favored parameter space is heavily constrained by ΔNeff and overproduction of ALP dark matter. While there are potential mechanisms for avoiding the second problem, evading the ΔNeff constraint remains highly challenging. In particular, we find that the gravitational wave magnitude is significantly suppressed with respect to the gauge boson dark radiation, which implies that successfully explaining the NANOGrav observation requires a large additional dark radiation, violating the cosmological constraints. Satisfying the ΔNeff constraint will limit the potential contribution from this mechanism to the observed signal to at most a percent level. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Exploring dark matter-gauge boson effective interactions at current and future colliders* *RD is Supported in part by the National Key R&D Programme of China (2021YFC2203100). YZ is Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11805001) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JZ2023HGTB0222)

In this study, we systematically investigate collider constraints on effective interactions between Dark Matter (DM) particles and electroweak gauge bosons. We consider the simplified models in which scalar or Dirac fermion DM candidates couple only to electroweak gauge bosons through high dimensional effective operators. Considering the induced DM-quarks and DM-gluons operators from the Renormalization Group Evolution (RGE) running effect, we present comprehensive constraints on the effective energy scale Λ and Wilson coefficients from direct detection, indirect detection, and collider searches. In particular, we present the corresponding sensitivity from the Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) and Future Circular Collider in the electron-proton mode (FCC-ep) for the first time, update the mono-j and mono-γ search limits at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and derive the new limits at the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC).

Refractive neutrino masses, ultralight dark matter and cosmology

We consider in detail a possibility that the observed neutrino oscillations are due to refraction on ultralight scalar boson dark matter.We introduce the refractive mass squared, m̃2, and study its properties: dependence on neutrino energy,state of the background, etc. If the background is in a state of cold gas of particles, m̃2 shows a resonance dependence on energy. Above the resonance (E ≫ ER ), we find that m̃2 has the same properties as usual vacuum mass squared.Below the resonance, m̃2 decreases with energy, which (if realised) allows to avoid the cosmological bound on the sum of neutrino masses. Also, m̃2 may depend on time. We consider the validity of the results: effects of multiple interactions with scalars, and modification of the dispersion relation. We show that for values of parameters of the system required toreproduce the observed neutrino masses, perturbativity is broken at low energies, which border above the resonance.If the background is in the state of coherent classical field, the refractive mass does not depend on energy explicitly but may showtime dependence. It coincides with the refractive mass in a cold gas at high energies.Refractive nature of neutrino mass can be tested by searches of its dependence on energy and time.

Proca stars with dark photons from spontaneous symmetry breaking of the scalar field dark matter

Recently, the Scalar Field Dark Matter (SFDM) model (also known as Fuzzy, Wave, Bose-Einstein, Ultra-light Dark Matter) has gained a lot of attention because it has provided simpler and more natural explanations for various phenomena observed in galaxies, as a natural explanation for the center of galaxies, the number of satellite galaxies around their host and, more recently, a natural explanation for anomalous trajectories of satellite galaxies called Vast Polar Orbits (VPO) observed in various galaxies. In the present work we study the assumption that the SFDM is a type of charged dark boson whose gauge charge is associated with the Dark Photon (DP). Inspired by these results, we study the formation of compact bosonic objects, such as Boson Stars (BS) and focus on the possibility that, due to spontaneous U(1) SFDM symmetry breaking, the DP may acquire mass and form compact objects like Proca Stars (PS). If this is true, we can expect measurable effects on the electromagnetic field of the Standard Model (SM) of particles due to their interaction with the DP on the formation of compact objects.

X17 discovery potential in γd → e+e−pn at MAGIX@MESA

We propose a direct search experiment for X17 using deuteron photodisintegration, γd → e+e−pn, at the MAGIX@MESA experiment. X17 is a boson conjectured by the ATOMKI collaboration to explain anomalous signals around 17 MeV in excited 8Be, 12C and 4He nuclear decays. It is the subject of an intense, global research program; an experiment at an electron accelerator would complement the ongoing effort to verify X17’s existence. Using the plane-wave impulse approximation around the neutron quasi-free peak, we show that an enhanced X17 signal over the QED background is visible in γd → e+e−pn, assuming pseudoscalar, vector and axial-vector X17 scenarios. Additionally, we discuss how our calculation may be generalized to searches for a generic dark boson in a photon-deuteron reaction.

Search for Dark Photons in Rare Z Boson Decays with the ATLAS Detector.

A search for events with a dark photon produced in association with a dark Higgs boson via rare decays of the standard model Z boson is presented, using 139 fb^{-1} of sqrt[s]=13 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The dark boson decays into a pair of dark photons, and at least two of the three dark photons must each decay into a pair of electrons or muons, resulting in at least two same-flavor opposite-charge lepton pairs in the final state. The data are found to be consistent with the background prediction, and upper limits are set on the dark photon's coupling to the dark Higgs boson times the kinetic mixing between the standard model photon and the dark photon, α_{D}ϵ^{2}, in the dark photon mass range of [5, 40]GeV except for the ϒ mass window [8.8, 11.1]GeV. This search explores new parameter space not previously excluded by other experiments.

Gravitational waves from walls bounded by strings in SO(10) model of pseudo-Goldstone dark matter

We explore the gravitational wave spectrum generated by string-wall structures in an SO(10) (Spin(10)) based scenario of pseudo-Goldstone boson dark matter (pGDM) particle. This dark matter candidate is a linear combination of the Standard Model (SM) singlets present in the 126 and 16 dimensional Higgs fields. The Higgs 126-plet vacuum expectation value (VEV) 〈126H〉 leaves unbroken the Z2 subgroup of Z4, the center of SO(10). Among other things, this yields topologically stable cosmic strings with a string tension μ∼〈126H〉2. The subsequent (spontaneous) breaking of Z2 at a significantly lower scale by the 16-plet VEV 〈16H〉 leads to the appearance of domain walls bounded by the strings produced earlier. We display the gravitational wave spectrum for Gμ values varying between 10−15 and 10−9 (〈126H〉∼1011 - 1014 GeV), and 〈16H〉∼0.1 - 102 TeV range (G denotes Newton's constant.) These predictions can be tested, as we show, by a variety of (proposed) experiments including LISA, ET, CE and others.

Constraining Dark Boson Decay Using Neutron Stars

Inspired by the well-known anomaly in the lifetime of the neutron, we investigated its consequences inside neutron stars. We first assessed the viability of the neutron decay hypothesis suggested by Fornal and Grinstein within neutron stars, in terms of the equation of state and compatibility with observed properties. This was followed by an investigation of the constraint information on neutron star cooling that can be placed on the decay rate of the dark boson into standard model particles, in the context of various BSM ideas.

Improved Limits on the Coupling of Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter to Photons from Optical Atomic Clock Comparisons.

We present improved constraints on the coupling of ultralight bosonic dark matter to photons based on long-term measurements of two optical frequency ratios. In these optical clock comparisons, we relate the frequency of the ^{2}S_{1/2}(F=0)↔^{2}F_{7/2}(F=3) electric-octupole (E3) transition in ^{171}Yb^{+} to that of the ^{2}S_{1/2}(F=0)↔^{2}D_{3/2}(F=2) electric-quadrupole (E2) transition of the same ion, and to that of the ^{1}S_{0}↔^{3}P_{0} transition in ^{87}Sr. Measurements of the first frequency ratio ν_{E3}/ν_{E2} are performed via interleaved interrogation of both transitions in a single ion. The comparison of the single-ion clock based on the E3 transition with a strontium optical lattice clock yields the second frequency ratio ν_{E3}/ν_{Sr}. By constraining oscillations of the fine-structure constant α with these measurement results, we improve existing bounds on the scalar coupling d_{e} of ultralight dark matter to photons for dark matter masses in the range of about (10^{-24}-10^{-17}) eV/c^{2}. These results constitute an improvement by more than an order of magnitude over previous investigations for most of this range. We also use the repeated measurements of ν_{E3}/ν_{E2} to improve existing limits on a linear temporal drift of α and its coupling to gravity.

Dark SU(2) Stueckelberg portal

We study the non-abelian $SU(2)_D$ extension of the $U(1)_D$ Stueckelberg portal, which plays a role of the mediator between the Standard Model (SM) and Dark Sector (DS). This portal is specified by the Stueckelberg mechanism for generation of dark gauge boson masses. Proposed $U(1)_D\times SU(2)_D$ Stueckelberg portal has a connection with SM matter fields in analogy with Familon Model. We derive bounds on the couplings of dark portal bosons and SM particles, which govern diagonal and non-diagonal flavor transitions of quarks and leptons.

Probing a light dark sector at future lepton colliders via invisible decays of the SM-like and dark Higgs bosons

A renormalizable UV model for axionlike particles or hidden photons, which may explain the dark matter, usually involves a dark Higgs field, which is a singlet under the standard model (SM) gauge group. The dark sector can couple to the SM particles via the portal coupling between the SM-like Higgs and dark Higgs fields. Through this coupling, the dark sector particles can be produced in either the early Universe or the collider experiments. Interestingly, not only the SM-like Higgs boson can decay into the light dark bosons, but also a light dark Higgs boson may be produced and decay into the dark bosons in a collider. In this paper, we perform the first collider search for invisible decays by taking both the Higgs bosons into account. We use a multivariate technique to best discriminate the signal from the background. We find that a large parameter region can be probed at the International Linear Collider operating at the center-of-mass energy of 250 GeV. In particular, even when the SM-like Higgs invisible decay is a few orders of magnitude below the planned sensitivity reaches of the International Linear Collider and the high luminosity LHC, the scenario can be probed by the invisible decay of the dark Higgs boson produced via a similar diagram. Measuring the dark Higgs boson decay into the dark sector will be a smoking gun signal of the light dark sector. A similar search of the dark sector would be expected in, e.g., the Cool Copper Collider, the Circular Electron Positron Collider, the Compact Linear Collider, and the Future Circular electron-positron Collider.

Investigation of a light Dark Boson existence: The New JEDI project

Several experiments around the world are looking for a new particle, named Dark Boson, which may do the link between the Ordinary Matter (which forms basically stars, planets, interstellar gas...) and the Hidden Sectors of the Universe. This particle, if it exists, would act as the messenger of a new fundamental interaction of nature. In this paper, the underlying Dark Sectors theory will be introduced first. A non-exhaustive summary of experimental studies carried out to date and foreseen in the incoming years will be presented after,including the 8Be anomaly. The last section will provide a status of the New JEDI**** project which aims to investigate the existence or not of a Dark Boson in the MeV range.

Diffuse x-ray and gamma-ray limits on boson stars that interact with nuclei

Light bosonic dark matter can form gravitationally bound states known as boson stars. In this work, we explore a new signature of these objects interacting with the interstellar medium (ISM). We show how small effective couplings between the bosonic dark matter and the nucleon lead to a potential that accelerates ISM baryons as they transit the boson star, making the ISM within radiate at a high rate and energy. The low ISM density, however, implies the majority of Galactic boson stars will be too faint to be observable through this effect. By contrast, the diffuse photon flux, in hard x-rays and soft gamma-rays, produced by boson stars interacting with the ionized ISM phases can be sizable. We compute this diffuse flux and compare it to existing observations from HEAO-1, INTEGRAL and COMPTEL to infer limits on the fraction of these objects. This novel method places constraints on boson star dark matter while avoiding back-action effects from ambient baryons on the boson star configuration, unlike terrestrial searches where it has been noted that back-action can screen light bosonic fields. In addition, this study could be extended to other couplings and structures formed from light dark matter. For dark matter masses (10-14, 10-8) eV and boson star masses (10-10, 10-1) M ⊙, we find the constraints on the fraction can go down to f* ≲ 10-9 for dark matter in boson stars that is directly coupled to the Standard Model.

Ultralight pion and superheavy baryon dark matter

We consider a dark confining gauge theory with millicharged ultralight pions (ULP) and heavy baryons as dark matter candidates. The model simultaneously realizes the ultralight (strongly interacting ultralight millicharged particle or ``STUMP'') and superheavy (``WIMPzilla'') dark matter paradigms, connected by the confinement scale of the dark QCD. It is a realization of millicharged ultralight dark matter, unlike conventional axions, and exhibits a mass splitting between the charged and neutral pions. ULPs can easily provide the observed density of the dark matter, and be cosmologically stable, for a broad range of dark QCD scales and quark masses. The dark baryons, produced via gravitational particle production or via freeze-in, provide an additional contribution to the dark matter density. Dark matter halos and boson stars in this context are generically an admixture of the three pions and heavy baryons, leading to a diversity of density profiles. That opens up the accessible parameter space of the model compared with the standard millicharged dark matter scenarios and can be probed by future experiments. We briefly discuss additional interesting phenomenology, such as ULP electrodynamics, and cosmic ULP backgrounds.

Neutrino astronomy as a probe of physics beyond the Standard Model: Decay of sub-MeV B−L gauge boson dark matter

The $U(1)_{B\textrm{--}L}$ symmetry, the essential component in the seesaw mechanism and leptogenesis, is naturally equipped with a massive gauge boson. If this gauge boson is the dark matter, the scenario consistent with the seesaw mechanism predicts the gauge coupling to be of the order of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-19})$ for masses $\lesssim1$ MeV, dominantly decaying into active neutrinos. We stress and explore the important role of astrophysical neutrinos of energies from $\mathcal{O}(1)$ keV to $\sim1$ MeV in testing the well-motivated $B$-$L$ symmetry extension to the Standard Model, which has been missed in the literature to date. Compared to other dark matter models, the neutrino flux in the sub-MeV energy range is a unique prediction in our setup and, once detected, would serve as a smoking gun for the existence of this $B$-$L$ gauge boson and its role as the dark matter particle, opening new windows to tackle cosmological and astrophysical conundra.