Can LIGO Detect Nonannihilating Dark Matter?

Area of Science:

• Astrophysics and Cosmology
• Particle Physics
• Gravitational Wave Astronomy

Background:

• Dark matter (DM) accumulating in neutron stars could form low-mass black holes.
• The properties of dark matter particles (mass, stability, nucleon interactions) are key to this process.
• Gravitational wave detectors like LIGO offer a new observational window into dark matter physics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To constrain the interaction cross-sections between dark matter particles and nucleons.
• To utilize the non-detection of gravitational waves from specific black hole mergers for these constraints.
• To explore the potential of gravitational wave detectors as probes for particle dark matter.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of gravitational wave data from LIGO's O3 observing run.
• Modeling the formation of sub-2.5M_{⊙} black holes from neutron stars accreting dark matter.
• Setting upper limits on the dark matter-nucleon interaction cross-section (σ_{χn}) based on non-detections.

Main Results:

• Benchmark constraints derived: σ_{χn}≥O(10^{-47}) cm² for bosonic DM (m_{χ}∼PeV or m_{χ}∼GeV) and ≥O(10^{-46}) cm² for fermionic DM (m_{χ}∼10³ PeV).
• Constraints are dependent on prior assumptions about DM parameters and binary neutron star merger rates.
• Future LIGO sensitivity will probe cross-sections significantly below the neutrino floor.

Conclusions:

• The non-detection of gravitational waves from low-mass black hole mergers provides stringent constraints on non-annihilating dark matter interactions.
• Gravitational wave astronomy offers a powerful, independent method to probe particle dark matter properties.
• Future gravitational wave detector sensitivity will test the dark matter explanation for missing pulsars.