Probing Ultralight Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter with XMM Telescopes

TL;DR

This paper uses XMM telescope data to set new constraints on the abundance of ultralight primordial black holes as dark matter candidates, focusing on their evaporation signatures in soft X-ray observations.

Contribution

It provides the first constraints on primordial black hole dark matter in the mass range $10^{15}$-$10^{16}$ g using soft X-ray data from XMM telescopes.

Findings

Excludes PBH dark matter fraction >10^{-6} at 95% confidence for 10^{15} g mass.

Sets new upper limits on ultralight PBH abundance based on X-ray observations.

Abstract

Primordial black holes (PBHs), originating from the gravitational collapse of large overdensities in the early Universe, emerge as a compelling dark matter (DM) candidate across a broad mass range. Of particular interest are ultra-light PBHs with masses around $10^{14}$ to $10^{17}$ g, which are typically probed by searching their evaporation products. Using the soft X-ray signal measured by the XMM telescopes, we derive constraints on the fraction of PBHs dark matter with masses in the range $10^{15}$-$10^{16}$ g. We find that observations exclude fraction $f>10^{-6}$ at 95\% C.L. for mass $M_{\rm PBH}=10^{15}$ g.