Dark Matter Triggers of Supernovae
Peter W. Graham, Surjeet Rajendran, Jaime Varela

TL;DR
This paper proposes that primordial black holes can trigger supernovae in white dwarfs, providing new constraints on dark matter properties through astrophysical observations and suggesting white dwarfs as natural detectors for dark matter scenarios.
Contribution
It introduces a novel mechanism where dark matter black holes induce supernovae in white dwarfs, leading to new bounds on dark matter mass ranges and detection methods.
Findings
Primordial black holes of certain masses are ruled out as dominant dark matter components.
White dwarf observations constrain black holes up to 10^{24} grams.
White dwarfs can serve as space-time volume detectors for low-density dark matter.
Abstract
The transit of primordial black holes through a white dwarf causes localized heating around the trajectory of the black hole through dynamical friction. For sufficiently massive black holes, this heat can initiate runaway thermonuclear fusion causing the white dwarf to explode as a supernova. The shape of the observed distribution of white dwarfs with masses up to rules out primordial black holes with masses gm - gm as a dominant constituent of the local dark matter density. Black holes with masses as large as gm will be excluded if recent observations by the NuStar collaboration of a population of white dwarfs near the galactic center are confirmed. Black holes in the mass range gm - gm are also constrained by the observed supernova rate, though these bounds are subject to astrophysical uncertainties. These bounds…
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