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Register a new userConstraining primordial black holes as dark matter using the global 21-cm signal with X-ray heating and excess radio background
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Shikhar Mittal
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Using the global 21-cm signal measurement by the EDGES collaboration, we derive constraints on the fraction of the dark matter that is in the form of primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses in the range $10^{15}$-$10^{17},$g. Improving upon previous analyses, we consider the effect of the X-ray heating of the intergalactic medium on these constraints, and also use the full shape of the 21-cm absorption feature in our inference. In order to account for the anomalously deep absorption amplitude, we also consider an excess radio background motivated by LWA1 and ARCADE2 observations. Because the heating rate induced by PBH evaporation evolves slowly, the data favour a scenario in which PBH-induced heating is accompanied by X-ray heating. Also, for the same reason, using the full measurement across the EDGES observation band yields much stronger constraints on PBHs than just the redshift of absorption. We find that 21-cm observations exclude $f_{mathrm{PBH}} gtrsim 10^{-9.7}$ at 95% CL for $M_{mathrm{PBH}}=10^{15},$g. This limit weakens approximately as $M_{mathrm{PBH}}^4$ towards higher masses, thus providing the strongest constraints on ultralight evaporating PBHs as dark matter over the entire mass range $10^{15}$-$10^{17},$g. Under the assumption of a simple spherical gravitational collapse based on the Press-Schechter formalism, we also derive bounds on the curvature power spectrum at extremely small scales ($ksim 10^{15},$Mpc$^{-1}$). This highlights the usefulness of global 21-cm measurements, including non-detections, across wide frequency bands for probing exotic physical processes.
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We consider the dark matter (DM) scenarios consisting of the mixture of WIMPs and PBHs and study how much fraction of the total DM can be PBHs. In such scenarios, PBHs can accrete the WIMPs and consequently enhance the heating and ionization in the intergalactic medium due to WIMP annihilations. We demonstrate that the CMB data can give the stringent bounds on the allowed PBH fraction which are comparable or even tighter than those from the gamma ray data depending on the DM masses. For instance, the MCMC likelihood analysis using the Planck CMB data leads to the bound on PBH DM fraction with respect to the total dark matter $f_{rm PBH} lesssim {cal O}( 10^{-10}sim 10^{-8})$ for the WIMP mass $m_{chi}sim {cal O}(10sim 10^3)$ GeV with the conventional DM annihilation cross section $langle sigma v rangle=3 times 10^{-26}~rm cm^3/s $. We also investigate the feasibility of the global 21-cm signal measurement to provide the stringent constraints on the PBH fraction.
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