Nuclear Physics B (Aug 2024)
Probing ultralight primordial black hole dark matter with XMM telescopes
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 1014 to 1017 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 1015-1016 g. We find that observations exclude fraction f>10−6 at 95% C.L. for mass MPBH=1015 g.