RT Journal Article
T1 GW190521 as a Merger of Proca Stars: A Potential New Vector Boson of 8.7 x 10 -13 eV
A1 Calderón Bustillo, Juan
A1 Sanchis-Gual, Nicolas
A1 Torres-Forné, Alejandro
A1 Font, José A.
A1 Vajpeyi, Avi
A1 Smith, Rory
A1 Herdeiro, Carlos
A1 Radu, Eugen
A1 Leong, Samson H. W.
K1 Dark matter
K1 General relativity
K1 gravitational waves
K1 particle dark matter
AB Advanced LIGO-Virgo have reported a short gravitational-wave signal (GW190521) interpreted as a quasicircular merger of black holes, one at least populating the pair-instability supernova gap, that formed a remnant black hole of 𝑀𝑓 ∼142  𝑀⊙ at a luminosity distance of 𝑑𝐿 ∼5.3  Gpc. With barely visible pre-merger emission, however, GW190521 merits further investigation of the pre-merger dynamics and even of the very nature of the colliding objects. We show that GW190521 is consistent with numerically simulated signals from head-on collisions of two (equal mass and spin) horizonless vector boson stars (aka Proca stars), forming a final black hole with 𝑀𝑓 =23⁢1+13−17  𝑀⊙, located at a distance of 𝑑𝐿 =57⁢1+348−181  Mpc. This provides the first demonstration of close degeneracy between these two theoretical models, for a real gravitational-wave event. The favored mass for the ultralight vector boson constituent of the Proca stars is 𝜇V =8.7⁢2+0.73−0.82 ×10−13  eV. Confirmation of the Proca star interpretation, which we find statistically slightly preferred, would provide the first evidence for a long sought dark matter particle.
PB APS
SN 0031-9007
YR 2021
FD 2021-02-24
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45847
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/45847
LA eng
NO Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 081101. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.081101
DS Minerva
RD 25 may 2026