Search for Subsolar-Mass Binaries in the First Half of Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's Third Observing Run

(LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)

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31 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report on a search for compact binary coalescences where at least one binary component has a mass between 0.2 M and 1.0 M in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo data collected between 1 April 2019 1500 UTC and 1 October 2019 1500 UTC. We extend our previous analyses in two main ways: we include data from the Virgo detector and we allow for more unequal mass systems, with mass ratio q≥0.1. We do not report any gravitational-wave candidates. The most significant trigger has a false alarm rate of 0.14 yr-1. This implies an upper limit on the merger rate of subsolar binaries in the range [220-24200] Gpc-3 yr-1, depending on the chirp mass of the binary. We use this upper limit to derive astrophysical constraints on two phenomenological models that could produce subsolar-mass compact objects. One is an isotropic distribution of equal-mass primordial black holes. Using this model, we find that the fraction of dark matter in primordial black holes in the mass range 0.2 M<mPBH<1.0 M is fPBHωPBH/ωDM6%. This improves existing constraints on primordial black hole abundance by a factor of ∼3. The other is a dissipative dark matter model, in which fermionic dark matter can collapse and form black holes. The upper limit on the fraction of dark matter black holes depends on the minimum mass of the black holes that can be formed: the most constraining result is obtained at Mmin=1 M, where fDBHωDBH/ωDM0.003%. These are the first constraints placed on dissipative dark models by subsolar-mass analyses.

Original languageEnglish
Article number61104
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume129
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 5 Aug 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Physical Society.

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by NSF’s LIGO Laboratory which is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology, India, the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, the Vicepresidència i Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca i Turisme and the Conselleria d’Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears, the Conselleria d’Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana and the CERCA Programme Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain, the National Science Centre of Poland and the European Union—European Regional Development Fund; Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation, the European Commission, the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the French Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS), Actions de Recherche Concertées (ARC) and Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen (FWO), Belgium, the Paris Íle-de-France Region, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFIH), the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada, Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations, the International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, the United States Department of Energy, and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, INFN, and CNRS for provision of computational resources. Funding for this project was provided by the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at Penn State. This article has been assigned the document number LIGO-P2100163-v8.

FundersFunder number
Actions de Recherche Concertées
Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen
French Lyon Institute of Origins
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
Pittsburgh Foundation
Kavli Foundation
College of Natural Resources and Sciences, Humboldt State University
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Leverhulme Trust
Royal Society
Scottish Funding Council
Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
European Commission
Australian Research Council
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Science and Engineering Research Board
Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej
Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
Generalitat de Catalunya
Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
National Research Foundation of Korea
Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Narodowe Centrum Nauki
Ministry of Education, India
Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Russian Science Foundation
European Regional Development Fund
Universitat de les Illes Balears
Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research
Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital, Generalitat Valenciana

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