Gravitational wave constraints on extended dark matter structures

TL;DR

This paper extends gravitational wave constraints to larger dark matter structures, demonstrating LIGO's sensitivity to objects with radii from 10 to 1000 km that constitute a small fraction of dark matter.

Contribution

It generalizes existing primordial black hole constraints to include extended dark matter objects using LIGO data.

Findings

LIGO can detect dark objects with radii of 10-1000 km.

Objects making up more than 1-0.1% of dark matter are detectable.

Constraints apply to a broader class of dark matter candidates.

Abstract

We generalise existing constraints on primordial black holes to dark objects with extended sizes using the aLIGO design sensitivity. We show that LIGO is sensitive to dark objects with radius $O(10-10^3~{\rm km})$ if they make up more than $\sim O(10^{-2}-10^{-3})$ of dark matter.