Observational constraints for primordial mini black holes
by
Marek Abramowicz(Nordita)
→
Europe/Stockholm
Klein Auditorium
Klein Auditorium
Description
In the last ten or so years, the existence of stellar mass black holes and
supermassive black holes has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. We
are confident that we understand astrophysical processes that form these
two kinds of black holes. It was suggested that the primordial black
holes (PBH), with much smaller masses, were formed in the very early
universe just after the Big Bang, and that they may contribute to the
dark matter halo of our Galaxy. The only direct observational constraints
for these hypothetical objects (DMPBH) follow from no detection of any
clear signature of the predicted Hawking's evaporation of them at masses
~1015 g, and from interpretation of the microlensing results
at masses >1026 g. Thus, the mass region 1015 g <
M < 1025 g remains observationally unconstrained. The question
whether (the hypothetical) collisions of DMPBH in this mass range with
Earth, white dwarfs, neutron stars and red giant stars could lead to
potentially detectable observational signatures, has not yet received
a definite answer. In my opinion, such detections are unlikely.