0000000000323888
AUTHOR
Mark P. Hertzberg
showing 5 related works from this author
Implications for dark matter direct detection in the presence of LIGO-motivated primordial black holes
2019
We discuss formation of dark matter (DM) mini-halos around primordial black holes (PBHs) and its implication on DM direct detection experiments, including axion searches. Motivated by LIGO observations, we consider $f_{\textrm{DM}} \simeq 0.01$ as the fraction of DM in PBHs with masses $10 M_{\odot} - 70 M_{\odot}$. In this case, we expect the presence of dressed PBHs after Milky Way halo formation with mini-halo masses peaked around $M_{\textrm{halo}} \sim (50-55) M_{\textrm{PBH}}$. We analyze the effect of tidal forces acting on dressed PBHs within the Milky Way galaxy. In the solar neighborhood, the mini-halos are resistant against tidal disruption from the mean-field potential of the ga…
Microlensing constraints on axion stars including finite lens and source size effects
2021
A fraction of light scalar dark matter, especially axions, may organize into Bose-Einstein condensates, gravitationally bound clumps, "boson stars", and be present in large number in galactic halos today. We compute the expected number of gravitational microlensing events of clumps composed of the ordinary QCD axion and axion-like-particles and derive microlensing constraints from the EROS-2 survey and the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam observation. We perform a detailed lensing calculation, including the finite lens and source size effects in our analysis. We constrain the axion mass in terms of the fraction of dark matter collapsed into clumps, the individual clump densities, and the axion self…
Shining primordial black holes
2021
We study the well-motivated mixed dark matter (DM) scenario composed of a dominant thermal WIMP, highlighting the case of $SU(2)_L$ triplet fermion "winos", with a small fraction of primordial black holes (PBHs). After the wino kinetic decoupling, the DM particles are captured by PBHs leading to the presence of PBHs with dark minihalos in the Milky Way today. The strongest constraints for the wino DM come from the production of narrow line gamma rays from wino annihilation in the Galactic Center. We analyse in detail the viability of the mixed wino DM scenario, and determine the constraints on the fraction of DM in PBHs assuming a cored halo profile in the Milky Way. We show that already wi…
Merger of dark matter axion clumps and resonant photon emission
2020
A portion of light scalar dark matter, especially axions, may organize into gravitationally bound clumps (stars) and be present in large number in the galaxy today. It is therefore of utmost interest to determine if there are novel observational signatures of this scenario. Work has shown that for moderately large axion-photon couplings, such clumps can undergo parametric resonance into photons, for clumps above a critical mass $M^{\star}_c$ determined precisely by some of us in Ref. [1]. In order to obtain a clump above the critical mass in the galaxy today would require mergers. In this work we perform full 3-dimensional simulations of pairs of axion clumps and determine the conditions un…
Axion star nucleation in dark minihalos around primordial black holes
2020
We consider a general class of axion models, including the QCD and string axion, in which the PQ symmetry is broken before or during inflation. Assuming the axion is the dominant component of the dark matter, we discuss axion star formation in virialized dark minihalos around primordial black holes through gravitational Bose-Einstein condensation. We determine the conditions for minihalos to kinetically produce axion stars before galaxy formation. Today, we expect up to $\sim 10^{17}$ ($\sim 10^9$) axion stars in a radius of 100 parsecs around the Sun for the case of the QCD (string) axion.