Lyman-$alpha$ forest constraints on Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter. (arXiv:1903.10509v1 [astro-ph.CO])

Lyman-$alpha$ forest constraints on Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter. (arXiv:1903.10509v1 [astro-ph.CO])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Murgia_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Riccardo Murgia</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Scelfo_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Giulio Scelfo</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Viel_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Matteo Viel</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Raccanelli_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Alvise Raccanelli</a>

The renewed interest in the possibility that primordial black holes (PBHs)
may constitute a significant part of the dark matter has motivated revisiting
old observational constraints, as well as developing new ones. We present new
limits on the PBH abundance, from a comprehensive analysis of high resolution,
high redshift Lyman-$alpha$ forest data. Poisson fluctuations in the PBH
number density induce a small-scale power enhancement which departs from the
standard cold dark matter prediction. Using a grid of hydrodynamic simulations
exploring different values of astrophysical parameters, we obtain a
marginalized upper limit on the PBH mass of $f_{rm PBH}M_{rm PBH} sim
60~M_{odot},(170~M_{odot})$ at $2sigma$ (depending on priors), which
significantly improves previous constraints from the same physical observable.
We also extend our predictions to non-monochromatic PBH mass distributions,
ruling out large regions of the parameter space for some of the most viable PBH
extended mass functions.

The renewed interest in the possibility that primordial black holes (PBHs)
may constitute a significant part of the dark matter has motivated revisiting
old observational constraints, as well as developing new ones. We present new
limits on the PBH abundance, from a comprehensive analysis of high resolution,
high redshift Lyman-$alpha$ forest data. Poisson fluctuations in the PBH
number density induce a small-scale power enhancement which departs from the
standard cold dark matter prediction. Using a grid of hydrodynamic simulations
exploring different values of astrophysical parameters, we obtain a
marginalized upper limit on the PBH mass of $f_{rm PBH}M_{rm PBH} sim
60~M_{odot},(170~M_{odot})$ at $2sigma$ (depending on priors), which
significantly improves previous constraints from the same physical observable.
We also extend our predictions to non-monochromatic PBH mass distributions,
ruling out large regions of the parameter space for some of the most viable PBH
extended mass functions.

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