Systematic Uncertainties in Ultralight Boson Constraints from Superradiance
Abstract
Ultralight bosons are well-motivated candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model and may constitute part or all of the dark matter. Black-hole superradiance provides a powerful means of probing these particles through their gravitational interaction with rotating black holes. This mechanism has motivated a growing body of constraints from electromagnetic measurements of black-hole spins and, more recently, gravitational-wave observations. Gravitational-wave probes draw on several distinct signatures: the spins of merging binary black holes, gravitational radiation emitted by boson clouds, and potential imprints of cloud-induced changes to binary dynamics. The interpretation of these probes depends on method-specific astrophysical and theoretical assumptions, including black hole formation, natal spin, age, accretion history, population priors, and boson self-interactions. In this paper, we review the principal electromagnetic and gravitational-wave constraints derived from black-hole superradiance, with particular emphasis on their underlying assumptions and systematic uncertainties. The distinct observational signatures and systematic uncertainties of these approaches offer complementary perspectives on the viability of ultralight-boson models. In particular, their overlapping coverage around boson masses of 10−13-10−12 eV makes this region particularly informative for comparing constraints, with attention to the assumptions underlying each result.
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BibTeX
@misc{aswathi2026systematic,
title = {{Systematic Uncertainties in Ultralight Boson Constraints from Superradiance}},
author = {P. S. Aswathi and Ling Sun},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11091},
eprint = {2610.11091},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11091},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Systematic Uncertainties in Ultralight Boson Constraints from Superradiance
AU - P. S. Aswathi
AU - Ling Sun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11091
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11091
AB - Ultralight bosons are well-motivated candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model and may constitute part or all of the dark matter. Black-hole superradiance provides a powerful means of probing these particles through their gravitational interaction with rotating black holes. This mechanism has motivated a growing body of constraints from electromagnetic measurements of black-hole spins and, more recently, gravitational-wave observations. Gravitational-wave probes draw on several distinct signatures: the spins of merging binary black holes, gravitational radiation emitted by boson clouds, and potential imprints of cloud-induced changes to binary dynamics. The interpretation of these probes depends on method-specific astrophysical and theoretical assumptions, including black hole formation, natal spin, age, accretion history, population priors, and boson self-interactions. In this paper, we review the principal electromagnetic and gravitational-wave constraints derived from black-hole superradiance, with particular emphasis on their underlying assumptions and systematic uncertainties. The distinct observational signatures and systematic uncertainties of these approaches offer complementary perspectives on the viability of ultralight-boson models. In particular, their overlapping coverage around boson masses of 10^−13-10^−12 eV makes this region particularly informative for comparing constraints, with attention to the assumptions underlying each result.
ER -