Gravitational Wave Constraints on Planetary-Mass Primordial Black Holes Using LIGO O3a Data
(2024) Physical Review Letters — Vol. 133 (2024)
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- Gravitational waves from subsolar mass inspiraling compact objects would provide almost smoking-gun evidence for primordial black holes (PBHs). We perform the first search for inspiraling planetary-mass compact objects in equal-mass and highly asymmetric mass-ratio binaries using data from the first half of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA third observing run. Though we do not find any significant candidates, we determine the maximum luminosity distance reachable with our search to be of <math display="inline"><mrow><mi mathvariant="script">O</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>0.1</mn><mi>–</mi><mn>100</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>kpc</mi></mrow></math>, and corresponding model-independent upper limits on the merger rate densities to be <math display="inline"><mrow><mi mathvariant="script">O</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msup><mi>–</mi><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>7</mn></mrow></msup><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mrow><msup><mrow><mi>kpc</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>3</mn></mrow></msup><mtext> </mtext><mrow><msup><mrow><mi>yr</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></mrow></mrow></math> for systems with chirp masses of <math display="inline"><mrow><mi mathvariant="script">O</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></msup><mi>–</mi><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>2</mn></mrow></msup><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mo stretchy="false">⊙</mo></mrow></msub></mrow></math>, respectively. Furthermore, we interpret these rate densities as arising from PBH binaries and constrain the fraction of dark matter that such objects could comprise. For equal-mass PBH binaries, we find that these objects would compose less than 4%–100% of DM for PBH masses of <math display="inline"><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>2</mn></mrow></msup><msub><mi>M</mi><mo stretchy="false">⊙</mo></msub></math> to <math display="inline"><mn>2</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>3</mn></mrow></msup><msub><mi>M</mi><mo stretchy="false">⊙</mo></msub></math>, respectively. For asymmetric binaries, assuming one black hole mass corresponds to a peak in the mass function at <math display="inline"><mn>2.5</mn><msub><mi>M</mi><mo stretchy="false">⊙</mo></msub></math>, a PBH dark-matter fraction of 10% and a second, much lighter PBH, we constrain the mass function of the second PBH to be less than 1 for masses between <math display="inline"><mn>1.5</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>5</mn></mrow></msup><msub><mi>M</mi><mo stretchy="false">⊙</mo></msub></math> and <math display="inline"><mn>2</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></msup><msub><mi>M</mi><mo stretchy="false">⊙</mo></msub></math>. Our constraints, recently released, are robust enough to be applied to any PBH or exotic compact object binary formation models, and complement existence microlensing results.
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De Lillo, F., & et al. (2024). Gravitational Wave Constraints on Planetary-Mass Primordial Black Holes Using LIGO O3a Data. Physical Review Letters, 133. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.111401 (Original work published 2024)