Comment on "Excluding Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter Based on Solar System Ephemeris"
Abstract
It was recently claimed (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10799) that solar system ephemeris data can exclude primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter in the mass range 1018–1022 g. I show that this conclusion is based on an implausible, implicit assumption; namely the uncertainty on the solar system mass within 50 au is as small as the uncertainty on the mass of the Sun. Correcting for this error, I find that ephemeris data can only constrain PBH's with mass below 1016 g, which is already excluded by constraints on their evaporation via Hawking radiation. Correcting a further error concerning the time-averaged rate of such fluctuations nullifies even this weaker constraint.
- Publication:
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Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 2024
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2409.01993
- Bibcode:
- 2024RNAAS...8..220C
- Keywords:
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- Primordial black holes;
- 1292;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 1 page. Comment on arXiv:2408.10799. Accepted for publication in RNAAS