Picolensing as a Probe of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter

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Auteurs principaux: Fedderke, Michael A., Sibiryakov, Sergey
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Fedderke, Michael A.
Sibiryakov, Sergey
author_facet Fedderke, Michael A.
Sibiryakov, Sergey
contents The gravitational-lensing parallax of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is an intriguing probe of primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter in the asteroid-mass window, $2\times 10^{-16}M_{\odot} \lesssim M_{\text{PBH}} \lesssim 5 \times 10^{-12}M_{\odot}$. Recent work in the literature has shown exciting potential reach for this "picolensing" signal if a future space mission were to fly two x-/$γ$-ray detectors in the Swift/BAT class, with inter-spacecraft separation baselines on the order of the Earth-Moon distance. We revisit these projections with a view to understanding their robustness to various uncertainties related to GRBs. Most importantly, we investigate the impact of uncertainties in observed GRB angular sizes on reach projections for a future mission. Overall, we confirm that picolensing shows great promise to explore the asteroid-mass window; however, we find that previous studies may have been too optimistic with regard to the baselines required. Detector baselines on the order of at least the Earth-L2 distance would make such a mission more robust to GRB size uncertainties; baselines on the order of an astronomical unit (AU) would additionally enable reach that equals or exceeds existing microlensing constraints up to $M_{\text{PBH}} \sim 2 \times 10^{-8} M_{\odot}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_12947
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Picolensing as a Probe of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter
Fedderke, Michael A.
Sibiryakov, Sergey
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
The gravitational-lensing parallax of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is an intriguing probe of primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter in the asteroid-mass window, $2\times 10^{-16}M_{\odot} \lesssim M_{\text{PBH}} \lesssim 5 \times 10^{-12}M_{\odot}$. Recent work in the literature has shown exciting potential reach for this "picolensing" signal if a future space mission were to fly two x-/$γ$-ray detectors in the Swift/BAT class, with inter-spacecraft separation baselines on the order of the Earth-Moon distance. We revisit these projections with a view to understanding their robustness to various uncertainties related to GRBs. Most importantly, we investigate the impact of uncertainties in observed GRB angular sizes on reach projections for a future mission. Overall, we confirm that picolensing shows great promise to explore the asteroid-mass window; however, we find that previous studies may have been too optimistic with regard to the baselines required. Detector baselines on the order of at least the Earth-L2 distance would make such a mission more robust to GRB size uncertainties; baselines on the order of an astronomical unit (AU) would additionally enable reach that equals or exceeds existing microlensing constraints up to $M_{\text{PBH}} \sim 2 \times 10^{-8} M_{\odot}$.
title Picolensing as a Probe of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12947