Detecting Sub-lunar Mass Compact Objects toward the Local Group Galaxies

TL;DR

Monitoring stars in Local Group galaxies can reveal nanolensing events caused by sub-lunar mass compact objects like primordial black holes, providing a new way to detect dark matter components in the Milky Way halo.

Contribution

This paper proposes a novel observational method to detect sub-lunar mass compact objects through nanolensing events in Local Group galaxies, expanding dark matter detection techniques.

Findings

Potential to detect 10^3-10^4 nanolensing events per night for certain SULCO masses.

Ability to observe 10-100 weakly amplified events with bright stars.

Method opens new observational window for otherwise undetectable SULCOs.

Abstract

By monitoring a large number of stars in the Local Group galaxies, we can detect nanolensing events by sub-lunar mass compact objects (SULCOs) such as primordial black holes (PBHs) and rogue (free-floating) dwarf planets in the Milky Way halo. In contarst to microlensing by stellar-mass objects, the finite-source size effect becomes important and the lensing time duration becomes shorter ($\sim 10^{1-4}\,\textrm{s}$). Using stars with $V<26$ in M33 as sources, for one-night observation, we would be able to detect $10^{3-4}$ nanolensing events caused by SULCOs in the Milky Way halo with a mass of $10^{-9}M_{\odot}$ to $10^{-7}M_{\odot}$ for sources with S/N$>5$ if SULCOs constitute all the dark matter components. Moreover, we expect $10^{1-2}$ events in which bright blue stars with S/N$>100$ are weakly amplified due to lensing by SULCOs with a mass range of $10^{-11}M_{\odot}$ to $10^{-9}M_{\odot}$. Thus the method would open a new window on SULCOs in the Milky Way halo that would otherwise not be observable.