Photon-dark photon oscillation in M87 and Crab Nebula environments

Abstract

Compact astrophysical systems such as neutron stars and black holes provide powerful laboratories for testing feebly coupled dark photons (DPs). We investigate light DPs kinetically mixed with the visible photon that need not be the dark matter, focusing on resonant photon-DP oscillations in magnetized, modeled plasma environments. We show that realistic non-monotonic plasma density profiles generically enhance resonant conversion relative to monotonic models, leading to substantially stronger constraints on the photon-DP kinetic mixing parameter ($\epsilon$). Using spectral data from the supermassive black hole (SMBH) M87*, extending to the LOFAR band, we derive a bound $\epsilon \simeq 7\times10^{-6}$ at the DP mass $m_{A'} \simeq 5\times10^{-7}\,\mathrm{eV}$ for oscillation distance $3r_{\rm ph}$, where $r_{\rm ph}$ denotes the photon sphere radius. From the Crab pulsar-wind Nebula, we obtain an even stronger constraint, $\epsilon \simeq 8\times10^{-7}$ at $m_{A'} \simeq 4\times10^{-9}\,\mathrm{eV}$ for oscillation baselines of order $10^{3}\,\mathrm{km}$, surpassing existing astrophysical limits in realistic plasma backgrounds. While laboratory and cosmological bounds remain slightly stronger at comparable masses, observation of compact objects with larger surface magnetic fields and measurements of photon spectra at lower frequencies would enhance the limits on the photon-DP coupling by orders of magnitude.