Constraints on primordial black holes from LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O3 events

TL;DR

This paper updates constraints on primordial black holes using LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O3 data, showing they can constitute at most 0.1% of dark matter in the 1-200 solar mass range, regardless of various model assumptions.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of PBH abundance constraints considering diverse mass functions and non-Gaussianities using hierarchical Bayesian methods.

Findings

PBHs can make up at most 0.1% of dark matter in the 1-200 solar mass range.

Constraints are robust against different non-Gaussianities and mass function modifications.

The shape and strength of constraints are insensitive to model variations.

Abstract

Primordial black holes (PBH) can efficiently form black hole binaries in the early universe. We update the resulting constraints on PBH abundance using data from the third observational run (O3) of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA. To capture a wide range of PBH scenarios, we consider a variety of mass functions, including critical collapse in the QCD epoch in the presence of non-Gaussianities. Applying hierarchical Bayesian analysis to a population binaries consisting of primordial and astrophysical black holes, we find that, in every scenario, the PBHs can make up at most $f_{\rm PBH} \lesssim 10^{-3}$ of dark matter in the mass range $1-200~M_\odot$. The shape and strength of the constraints are insensitive to the type of non-Gaussianities, the modifications to the mass function during the QCD epoch, or the modelling of the astrophysical PBH population.