Searching for dark photon dark matter in LIGO O1 data

Dark matter exists in our Universe, but its nature remains mysterious. The remarkable sensitivity of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) may be able to solve this mystery. A good dark matter candidate is the ultralight dark photon. Because of its interaction with ordinary matter, it induces displacements on LIGO mirrors that can lead to an observable signal. In a study that bridges gravitational wave science and particle physics, we perform a direct dark matter search using data from LIGO’s first (O1) data run, as opposed to an indirect search for dark matter via its production of gravitational waves. We demonstrate an achieved sensitivity on squared coupling as $$\sim\! 4\times 1{0}^{-45}$$~4×10−45, in a $$U{(1)}_{{\rm{B}}}$$U(1)B dark photon dark matter mass band around $${m}_{{\rm{A}}} \sim 4\,\times 1{0}^{-13}$$mA~4×10−13 eV. Substantially improved search sensitivity is expected during the coming years of continued data taking by LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors in a growing global network.