Primordial black holes’ dark dresses: Roads towards a discovery and possible implications

by Daniele Gaggero (UAM)

Friday 24 May 2019, 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

IFAE seminar room (IFAE)

The birth of gravitational wave astronomy has been a major recent breakthrough in physics. The recent discovery of gravitational wave signals from merger events of massive binary-black-hole (BBH) systems have prompted a renewed debate in the scientific community about the existence of primordial black holes of O(1-100) solar masses. These objects may have formed in the early Universe and could constitute a significant portion of the elusive dark matter that, according to standard cosmology, makes up the majority of the matter content in the universe.

I will review the most recent development of this field, with particular focus on the mass window of interest for the LIGO and Virgo gravitational observatories. I will discuss in detail the most updated computations of the expected merger rate of a hypothetical subdominant population of primordial black holes, taking into account the impact of the dark matter “dresses” that are expected to form around these objects.

I will also present the prospects of discovery with forthcoming radio facilities such as SKA and ngVLA, and the possible consequences of such discovery on the existence of other dark matter candidates.