Primordial black hole constraints for extended mass functions

Abstract

We revisit the cosmological and astrophysical constraints on the fraction of the dark matter in primordial black holes (PBHs) with an extended mass function. We consider a variety of mass functions, all of which are described by three parameters: a characteristic mass and width and a dark matter fraction. Various observations then impose constraints on the dark matter fraction as a function of the first two parameters. We show how these constraints relate to those for a monochromatic mass function, demonstrating that they usually become more stringent in the extended case than the monochromatic one. Considering only the well-established bounds, and neglecting the ones that depend on additional astrophysical assumptions, we find that there are three mass windows, around $4\times 10^{-17}M_\odot,$ $2\times 10^{-14}M_\odot$ and $25-100M_\odot$, where PBHs can constitute all dark matter. However, if one includes all the bounds, PBHs can only constitute of order $10\%$ of the dark matter.

9 pages, 3 figures. v2: Added discussion about combined constraints. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. v3: Corrected a minor mistake in the plots for power-law mass functions