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

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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 derive constraints on their existence. For the HMM searches targeting the remnants from GW231123 and GW230814, we exclude vector boson masses in the ranges \( [0.94, 1.08] \) and \( [2.75, 3.28] \times 10^{-13} \) 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 \( [0.85, 1.59] \times 10^{-13} \) eV at 95% confidence, assuming an initial BH spin larger than 0.5.

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LIGO Document P2500256-v11