New limits on primordial black hole dark matter from an analysis of Kepler source microlensing data

We present new limits on the allowed masses of a dark matter (DM) halo consisting of primordial black holes (PBH) (or any other massive compact halo object). We analyze two years of data from the Kepler satellite, searching for short-duration bumps caused by gravitational microlensing. After removin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2013-11, Vol.111 (18), p.181302-181302, Article 181302
Main Authors: Griest, Kim, Cieplak, Agnieszka M, Lehner, Matthew J
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We present new limits on the allowed masses of a dark matter (DM) halo consisting of primordial black holes (PBH) (or any other massive compact halo object). We analyze two years of data from the Kepler satellite, searching for short-duration bumps caused by gravitational microlensing. After removing background events consisting of variable stars, flare events, and comets or asteroids moving through the Kepler field, we find no microlensing candidates. We measure the efficiency of our selection criteria by adding millions of simulated microlensing lensing events into the Kepler light curves. We find that PBH DM with masses in the range 2 × 10(-9) M[Symbol: see text] to 10(-7)M[Symbol: see text] cannot make up the entirety of the DM in the Milky Way. At the low-mass end, this decreases the allowed mass range by more than an order of magnititude.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.111.181302