Transient Solar Oscillations Driven by Primordial Black Holes
Abstract
Stars are transparent to the passage of primordial black holes (PBHs) and serve as seismic detectors for such objects. The gravitational field of a PBH squeezes a star and causes it to ring acoustically. We calculate the seismic signature of a PBH passing through the Sun. The background for this signal is the observed spectrum of solar oscillations excited by supersonic turbulence. We predict that PBHs more massive than 1021g (comparable in mass to an asteroid) are detectable by existing solar observatories. The oscillations excited by PBHs peak at large scales and high frequencies, making them potentially detectable in other stars. The discovery of PBHs would have profound implications for cosmology and high-energy physics.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- September 2011
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1106.0011
- Bibcode:
- 2011PhRvL.107k1101K
- Keywords:
-
- 96.60.Ly;
- 95.35.+d;
- 98.35.Jk;
- 98.80.-k;
- Helioseismology pulsations and shock waves;
- Dark matter;
- Galactic center bar circumnuclear matter and bulge;
- Cosmology;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 4 figures, final published version