Gravitational dark matter production: primordial black holes and UV freeze-in

TL;DR

This paper explores gravitational dark matter production via primordial black hole evaporation and UV freeze-in, showing that UV freeze-in imposes strong constraints on the parameter space of PBH-produced dark matter.

Contribution

It demonstrates the interplay between PBH evaporation and UV gravitational freeze-in, revealing constraints that limit the viable parameter space for gravitational dark matter.

Findings

UV freeze-in constrains PBH dark matter scenarios

Large parameter regions for PBH-produced DM are excluded

Dark matter can be produced up to the Planck scale

Abstract

Dark matter (DM) interacting only gravitationally with the standard model could have been produced in the early universe by Hawking evaporation of primordial black holes (PBH). This mechanism is viable in a large range of DM mass, spanning up to the Planck scale. However, DM is also unavoidably produced by the irreducible UV gravitational freeze-in. We show that the latter mechanism sets strong bounds, excluding large regions of the parameter space favored by PBH production.