Astronomical searches for primordial black holes

Marzo 4, 2019
De 3:00pm hasta 4:00pm

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Theoretical Physics, general interest
Speaker: 
Daniele Gaggero
Institution: 
IFT
Location&Place: 

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Abstract: 
The birth of gravitational wave astronomy has been a major recent breakthrough in physics. The recent discovery of gravitational wave signals from merger events of massive binary-black-hole (BBH) systems have prompted a renewed debate in the scientific community about the existence of primordial black holes of O(1-100) solar masses. These objects may have formed in the early Universe and could constitute a significant portion of the elusive dark matter that, according to standard cosmology, makes up the majority of the matter content in the universe.
I will review the most recent development of this field, with particular focus on the mass window of interest for the LIGO and Virgo gravitational observatories: I will discuss in detail the most updated computations of the expected merger rate of a hypothetical population of primordial black holes, and the prospects of discovery with forthcoming radio facilities such as SKA and ngVLA.