Comment on "Excluding Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter Based on Solar System Ephemeris"

TL;DR

This paper critiques a recent claim that solar system ephemeris data can exclude primordial black holes as dark matter, showing that the original conclusion was based on unrealistic assumptions and that current data only constrain very low-mass PBHs already ruled out by evaporation constraints.

Contribution

The paper identifies and corrects key assumptions in previous work, demonstrating that solar system ephemeris data do not effectively constrain primordial black hole dark matter in the claimed mass range.

Findings

Original claim relies on implausible assumptions.

Corrected analysis shows constraints only apply to PBHs below 10^{16} g.

Even these weaker constraints are nullified after further correction.

Abstract

It was recently claimed (arXiv:2408.10799) that solar system ephemeris data can exclude primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter in the mass range $10^{18}$-$10^{22}\,$g. We show that this conclusion is based on an implausible, implicit assumption; namely the uncertainty on the solar system mass within 50 au is as small as the uncertainty on the mass of the sun. Correcting for this error, we find that ephemeris data can only constrain PBH's with mass below $10^{16}\,$g, which is already excluded by constraints on their evaporation via Hawking radiation. Correcting a further error concerning the time-averaged rate of such fluctuations nullifies even this weaker constraint.