Pulsar Timing Array Constraints on Primordial Black Holes with NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1910.12239


The detection of binary black hole coalescences by LIGO/Virgo has aroused the interest in primordial black holes (PBHs), because they could be both the progenitors of these black holes and a compelling candidate of dark matter (DM). PBHs are formed soon after the enhanced scalar perturbations re-enter horizon during radiation dominated era, which would inevitably induce gravitational waves as well. Searching for such scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) provides a new way to probe PBHs. We perform the first direct search for the signals of SIGWs accompanying the formation of PBHs in North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav) 11-year data set. No statistically significant detection has been made, and we therefore place a stringent upper limit on the abundance of PBHs in DM at $95\%$ confidence level. Our results rule out the existence of PBHs in the mass range of $[10^{-3}, 0.5] \Msun$ (the abundance of PBHs in this mass range is less than $10^{-10}$).

Read this paper on arXiv…

Z. Chen, C. Yuan and Q. Huang
Tue, 29 Oct 19
30/78

Comments: 6 pages, 1 table, 2 figures