Robert Lasenby

Black Hole Mergers and the QCD Axion at Advanced LIGO

In the next few years, Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) may see gravitational waves (GWs) from thousands of black hole (BH) mergers. This marks the beginning of a new precision tool for physics. Here we show how to search for new physics beyond the standard model using this tool, in particular the QCD axion in the mass range μa∼10-14 to 10-10  eV. Axions (or any bosons) in this mass range cause rapidly rotating BHs to shed their spin into a large cloud of axions in atomic Bohr orbits around the BH, through the effect of superradiance (SR). This results in a gap in the mass vs spin distribution of BHs when the BH size is comparable to the axion’s Compton wavelength. By measuring the spin and mass of the merging objects observed at LIGO, we could verify the presence and shape of the gap in the BH distribution produced by the axion. The axion cloud can also be discovered through the GWs it radiates via axion annihilations or level transitions. A blind monochromatic GW search may reveal up to 105 BHs radiating through axion annihilations, at distinct frequencies within ∼3% of 2μa. Axion transitions probe heavier axions and may be observable in future GW observatories. The merger events are perfect candidates for a targeted GW search. If the final BH has high spin, a SR cloud may grow and emit monochromatic GWs from axion annihilations. We may observe the SR evolution in real time.

Stellar cooling bounds on new light particles: plasma mixing effects

A bstractStrong constraints on the coupling of new light particles to the Standard Model (SM) arise from their production in the hot cores of stars, and the effects of this on stellar cooling. For new light particles which have an effective in-medium mixing with the photon, plasma effects can result in parametrically different production rates to those obtained from a naive calculation. Taking these previously-neglected contributions into account, we make updated estimates for the stellar cooling bounds on light scalars and vectors with a variety of SM couplings. In particular, we improve the bounds on light (m ≲ keV) scalars coupling to electrons or nucleons by up to 3 orders of magnitude in the coupling squared, significantly revise the supernova cooling bounds on dark photon couplings, and qualitatively change the mass dependence of stellar bounds on new vectors. Scalars with mass ≲ 2 keV that couple through the Higgs portal are constrained to mixing angle sin θ ≲ 3 × 10−10, which gives the dominant bound for scalar masses above ∼ 0.2eV.

Annihilation Signals from Asymmetric Dark Matter

A bstractIn the simplest models of asymmetric dark matter (ADM) annihilation signals are not expected, since the DM is non-self-conjugate and the relic density of anti-DM is negligible. We investigate a new class of models in which a symmetric DM component, in the ‘low-mass’ 1-10 GeV regime favoured for linking the DM and baryon asymmetries, is repopulated through decays. We find that, in models without significant velocity dependence of the annihilation cross section, observational constraints generally force these decays to be (cosmologically) slow. These late decays can give rise to gamma-ray signal morphologies differing from usual annihilation profiles. A distinctive feature of such models is that signals may be absent from dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

Dark forces coupled to nonconserved currents

New light vectors with dimension-4 couplings to Standard Model states have (energy / vector mass)^2 enhanced production rates unless the current they couple to is conserved. These processes allow us to derive new constraints on the couplings of such vectors, that are significantly stronger than the previous literature for a wide variety of models. Examples include vectors with axial couplings to quarks and vectors coupled to currents (such as baryon number) that are only broken by the chiral anomaly. Our new limits arise from a range of processes, including rare Z decays and flavor changing meson decays, and rule out a number of phenomenologically-motivated proposals.

New constraints on light vectors coupled to anomalous currents

We derive new constraints on light vectors coupled to standard model (SM) fermions, when the corresponding SM current is broken by the chiral anomaly. The cancellation of the anomaly by heavy fermions results, in the low-energy theory, in Wess-Zumino-type interactions between the new vector and the SM gauge bosons. These interactions are determined by the requirement that the heavy sector preserves the SM gauge groups and lead to (energy/vector mass)^{2} enhanced rates for processes involving the longitudinal mode of the new vector. Taking the example of a vector coupled to a vector coupled to SM baryon number, Z decays and flavor-changing neutral current meson decays via the new vector can occur with (weak scale/vector mass)^{2} enhanced rates. These processes place significantly stronger coupling bounds than others considered in the literature, over a wide range of vector masses.

Big Bang Synthesis of Nuclear Dark Matter

A bstractWe investigate the physics of dark matter models featuring composite bound states carrying a large conserved dark “nucleon” number. The properties of sufficiently large dark nuclei may obey simple scaling laws, and we find that this scaling can determine the number distribution of nuclei resulting from Big Bang Dark Nucleosynthesis. For plausible models of asymmetric dark matter, dark nuclei of large nucleon number, e.g. ≳ 108, may be synthesised, with the number distribution taking one of two characteristic forms. If small-nucleon-number fusions are sufficiently fast, the distribution of dark nuclei takes on a logarithmically-peaked, universal form, independent of many details of the initial conditions and small-number interactions. In the case of a substantial bottleneck to nucleosynthesis for small dark nuclei, we find the surprising result that even larger nuclei, with size ≫ 108, are often finally synthesised, again with a simple number distribution. We briefly discuss the constraints arising from the novel dark sector energetics, and the extended set of (often parametrically light) dark sector states that can occur in complete models of nuclear dark matter. The physics of the coherent enhancement of direct detection signals, the nature of the accompanying dark-sector form factors, and the possible modifications to astrophysical processes are discussed in detail in a companion paper.

Black hole superradiance signatures of ultralight vectors

The process of superradiance can extract angular momentum and energy from astrophysical black holes (BHs) to populate gravitationally-bound states with an exponentially large number of light bosons. We analytically calculate superradiant growth rates for vectors around rotating BHs in the regime where the vector Compton wavelength is much larger than the BH size. Spin-1 bound states have superradiance times as short as a second around stellar BHs, growing up to a thou- sand times faster than their spin-0 counterparts. The fast rates allow us to use measurements of rapidly spinning BHs in X-ray binaries to exclude a wide range of masses for weakly-coupled spin-1 particles,

Signatures of large composite Dark Matter states

5 \times 10^{-14} - 2 \times 10^{-11}

Twin Higgs Asymmetric Dark Matter

eV; lighter masses in the range

Twin Higgs WIMP Dark Matter

6 \times 10^{-20} - 2 \times 10^{-17}