A new gravitational wave event reveals a binary black hole merger with total mass 190-265 solar masses, indicating black holes can form via gravitational-wave driven mergers beyond standard stellar channels.
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Did LIGO detect dark matter?
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abstract
We consider the possibility that the black-hole (BH) binary detected by LIGO may be a signature of dark matter. Interestingly enough, there remains a window for masses $20\,M_\odot \lesssim M_{\rm bh} \lesssim 100\, M_\odot$ where primordial black holes (PBHs) may constitute the dark matter. If two BHs in a galactic halo pass sufficiently close, they radiate enough energy in gravitational waves to become gravitationally bound. The bound BHs will rapidly spiral inward due to emission of gravitational radiation and ultimately merge. Uncertainties in the rate for such events arise from our imprecise knowledge of the phase-space structure of galactic halos on the smallest scales. Still, reasonable estimates span a range that overlaps the $2-53$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$ rate estimated from GW150914, thus raising the possibility that LIGO has detected PBH dark matter. PBH mergers are likely to be distributed spatially more like dark matter than luminous matter and have no optical nor neutrino counterparts. They may be distinguished from mergers of BHs from more traditional astrophysical sources through the observed mass spectrum, their high ellipticities, or their stochastic gravitational wave background. Next generation experiments will be invaluable in performing these tests.
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The first search for scalar-induced gravitational waves via pulsar parameter drifts yields f_PBH < 10^{-10} (95% CL) for PBH masses 0.3 to 4e4 solar masses, strongly disfavoring a primordial black hole origin for LVK binary black holes.
Stupendously large black holes cast shadows on the CMB that rule out masses above 10^17 solar masses within the last scattering surface and limit their density parameter to below 10^-5 for masses 10^15 to 10^18 solar masses.
In the ADD extra-dimension model, microscopic primordial black holes undergo runaway accretion and grow to macroscopic scales, allowing them to comprise all dark matter with initial abundances as low as 10^{-44}.
Curvaton self-interactions in non-quadratic potentials produce a local non-Gaussian map that enables supermassive primordial black hole formation at peak amplitudes of order 10^{-5} while remaining consistent with μ-distortion bounds.
Mass ratio reversals produce qualitatively different contributions to BBH merger rates and masses in COMPAS versus SEVN simulations, with core-growth dominating and most systems arising from massive low-metallicity progenitors.
Tensor perturbations from first-order phase transitions and domain wall annihilation induce curvature fluctuations at second order that form primordial black holes, allowing asteroid-mass PBHs to comprise all dark matter for specific parameter ranges with associated gravitational wave peaks in LISA,
Primordial black holes generate up to 30% amplitude VAO wiggles in 21 cm signals from the Dark Ages at redshifts 20-40 even at dark matter fractions as low as 10^-13.
GW231123's masses and high spins are consistent with primordial black holes that accreted mass and angular momentum in the early universe within the standard PBH framework.
Future high-frequency-sensitive GW detectors can distinguish binary neutron star from low-mass black hole mergers in late phases, enabling separation of merger rates and constraints on heavy non-annihilating dark matter via transmuted black holes.
Analytic gravitational waveforms from radial test-particle infall into a thin-shell traversable wormhole exhibit a characteristic pulse-gap structure from repeated throat crossings and lie within reach of ground-based detectors at ~500 Mpc.
Supersymmetry with heavy particles above ~10^5 GeV enhances asteroid-mass PBH production via transient equation-of-state softening, allowing them to comprise all dark matter unlike in the Standard Model.
EDE models increase inferred α_s from CMB data, strengthening tension with USR PBH models that predict negative running.
One-loop time dependence in superhorizon curvature perturbations cancels when all-scale contributions and boundary terms are included consistently via the δN formalism.
In the weak-field inspiral regime, binary black holes produce particles via a non-thermal power-law spectrum with dE/dt ∝ M^{10/3} ω^{16/3}.
BlackHawk v3.0 adds Hawking temperatures and greybody factors for multiple regular black hole metrics to an existing public code via numerical routines.
PBH masses near 10^3 kg allow Hawking evaporation to reheat the universe while Planckian remnants comprise all present-day DM without fine-tuning initial abundance, yielding testable GW signals.
In excursion set theory with colored noises, the low-mass tail of the PBH mass function differs from Carr's formula because correlated noises end the degeneracy of formation probabilities, though Carr's formula remains practical near the characteristic mass for smooth Fourier-space window functions.
Inflaton accretion during reheating drives non-linear PBH mass growth that extends lifetimes and amplifies emitted SGWB by multiple orders of magnitude.
3D simulations of cosmological first-order phase transitions find density perturbation spectra with k^3 and k^{-1.5} slopes and GW spectra with k^3 and k^{-2}, confirming slow transitions can produce PBHs.
Memory-burden backreaction deforms the Hawking spectrum to suppress its high-energy tail, lowering total luminosity and neutrino flux by a factor set by a single suppression parameter and thereby relaxing IceCube bounds on primordial black hole dark matter.
Establishes a model-independent link between scalar-induced GW backgrounds and PBH binary merger signals, including the mass-independent relation f_peak = 1.79 f_ISCO.
Early matter domination with time-dependent decay rates produces multiple first-order phase transitions whose gravitational wave signatures encode the transition and reheating temperatures.
In mixed ULDM-PBH halos the continuum PBH contribution alters soliton structure at the tens-of-percent level while discrete shot noise induces mode transitions too slow to matter on galactic timescales.
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