Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter GWAstronomy

Thursday, 18 September 2025, 17:05

A Universe made of Black Holdes?

Sten Delos, Antti Rantala, Sam Young, Fabian Schmidt
Carnegie Observatories, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, University of Sussex

Primordial black holes (PBH) form in many scenarios of the very early Universe, and could form part of the cold dark matter. In this talk, I will present the first consistent simulations of structure formation with primordial black hole dark matter (specifically, black holes in the ~ 10 M_odot range), that follow multi-body dynamics as well as gravitational wave radiation-reaction and black hole mergers (including kicks). These simulations make definite predictions for the observable merger rates of primordial black holes, as well as the stochastic background of gravitational waves (GW) due to ongoing black hole mergers. LIGO/Virgo as well as future GW detectors are expected to place tight constraints on the mass fraction of PBH dark matter. Based on: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01876