Directed searches for gravitational waves from ultralight vector boson clouds around merger remnant and galactic black holes during the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run

Authors

• A. G. Abac, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut)
• I. Abouelfettouh, LIGO Hanford
• Teviet Creighton, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Mario C. Diaz, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Raul Alberto Espinosa Perez, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• J. Lawrence, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• Francisco Llamas Villarreal, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• Soma Mukherjee, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Volker Quetschke, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Miriam Ramos Arevalo, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Wenhui Wang, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-28-2026

Abstract

We present the first directed searches for long-transient and continuous gravitational waves from ultralight vector boson clouds around known black holes (BHs). We use LIGO data from the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run. The searches target two distinct types of BHs and use two new semicoherent methods: hidden Markov model (HMM) tracking for the remnant BHs of the mergers GW230814_230901 and GW231123_135430 (referred to as GW230814 and GW231123 in this study) and a dedicated method using the Band Sampled Data (BSD) framework for the galactic BH in the Cygnus X-1 binary system. Without finding evidence of a signal from vector bosons in the data, we estimate the mass range that can be constrained. For the HMM searches targeting the remnants from GW231123 and GW230814, we disfavor vector boson masses in the ranges [0.94, 1.08] and [2.75,3.28] ×10−13  eV, respectively, at 30% confidence, assuming a 1% false alarm probability. Although these searches are only marginally sensitive to signals from merger remnants at relatively large distances, future observations are expected to yield more stringent constraints with high confidence. For the BSD search targeting the BH in Cygnus X-1, we exclude vector boson masses in the range [0.85,1.59] ×10−13  eV at 95% confidence, assuming an initial BH spin larger than 0.5.

Comments

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Recommended Citation

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and the KAGRA Collaboration, A. G. Abac, I. Abouelfettouh, et al. “Directed Searches for Gravitational Waves from Ultralight Vector Boson Clouds around Merger Remnant and Galactic Black Holes during the First Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run.” Physical Review D 114, no. 2 (2026): 022006. https://doi.org/10.1103/mjfs-m6t7.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Physical Review D

DOI

10.1103/mjfs-m6t7