Constraining Primordial Black Holes via p-wave annihilation in light of CMB Spectral Distortion and 21-cm global signal

TL;DR

This paper investigates how p-wave dark matter annihilation around primordial black holes affects cosmic signals, providing new constraints on black hole abundance based on CMB spectral distortions and 21-cm observations.

Contribution

It introduces the importance of p-wave annihilation in constraining primordial black holes using cosmic microwave background and 21-cm signals.

Findings

Stringent upper limits on PBH fraction from CMB spectral distortions.

Significant constraints derived from 21-cm absorption measurements.

Highlighting the necessity of considering p-wave annihilation in PBH studies.

Abstract

Primordial black holes (PBHs) can form spike density halos through the accretion of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In these halos, the enhanced density significantly boosts the annihilation rate of WIMPs. For Majorana dark matter annihilation into light fermions, the s-wave part of the annihilation cross section is helicity-suppressed, making the p-wave contribution dominant. We study the velocity-dependent p-wave annihilation case, whose resulting energy injection can modify the thermal and ionization history of the Universe, leaving observable imprints on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum and the global 21-cm signal. From the predicted energy injection into the plasma, we derive stringent upper limits on the fraction of dark matter in form of PBHs for p-wave annihilation models, based on the observational constraints of the CMB spectral distortions ($y$-type), and from the measurement of the 21-cm absorption signal at cosmic dawn. Our results highlight that accounting for the p-wave nature of annihilation is crucial for deriving robust constraints on the PBH abundance.