Event



Astro Seminar:"Probes of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter"

Ely Kovetz (Johns Hopkins)
| David Rittenhouse Laboratory, A4

The LIGO observatory has reported several detections of gravitational waves from the coalescence of binary black holes. We consider the extraordinary possibility that the detected events involving heavier masses are mergers of primordial black holes making up the dark matter in the Universe. We will survey some of the existing constraints on this scenario, present novel probes of massive compact dark matter in the relevant mass range based on strong gravitational lensing of fast radio bursts and gamma-ray bursts, and describe various ways this proposition can be tested with upcoming gravitational wave measurements. We will conclude with a summary of observational prospects to robustly test the proposed scenario over the next decade.