No LIGO MACHO: Constraining the abundance of primordial black holes with gravitational lensing of type Ia SNe

November 22, 2017
11:30am to 12:30pm

Sala Gris Audiovisuales

Specialist level
Speaker: 
Miguel Zumalacárregui
Institution: 
UC Berkeley
Location&Place: 

Sala Gris Audiovisuales

Abstract: 

Black hole mergers detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have revived dark matter models based on primordial black holes (PBH) or other massive compact halo objects (MACHO). These objects would be aboundant in the mass range 1-100 M_Sun, where rather remarkably, previous bounds were the weakest. I will present new constraints on the PBH abundance and mass using the gravitational lensing magnification of type Ia supernovae (Sne) using current datasets (JLA, Union 2.1). Our results rule out the hypothesis of MACHO/PBH comprising the totality of the dark matter at high significance in the mass range M > 0.01 M_Sun. Eliminating the possibility of a LIGO-mass MACHO further strengthens the case for microscopic dark matter.