A New Dark Matter and Early Universe Grand Science Campaign

Executive Summary

We aim to determine the fraction of dark matter composed of primordial black holes and provide the first early Universe constraints using primordial black holes, which will enable investigators to better understand the nature of black holes and the early Universe. We will leverage a confluence of state-of-the-art gravitational lensing and wave astronomical observatories and their associated surveys of the cosmos, coupled with pioneering methods in photometric microlensing, to discover black holes in real time.

Publications, Presentations, and Patents

Bird, Simeon, Andrea Albert, Will Dawson, Yacine Ali-Haimoud, Adam Coogan, Alex Drlica-Wagner, Qi Feng, Derek Inman, Keisuke Inomata, Ely Kovetz, Alexander Kusenko, Benjamin V. Lehmann, Julian B. Munoz, Rajeev Singh, Volodymyr Takhistov, and Yu-Dai Tsai. 2022. “Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter.”

Dawson, William et al. “Snowmass 2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter.” Snowmass Community Summer Study Workshop, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. July 17-26, 2022.

Dawson, William et al. “Black Holes Hiding in Plain Sight.” 25th International Microlensing Conference. Paris, France, August 31 – September 2, 2022.

Golovich, Nathan, William Dawson, Fran Bartolić, Casey Y. Lam, Jessica R. Lu, Michael S. Medford, Michael D. Schneider, George Chapline, Edward F. Schlafly, Alex Drlica-Wagner, and Kerianne Pruett. 2022. “A Reanalysis of Public Galactic Bulge Gravitational Microlensing Events from OGLE-III and -IV.” The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, vol. 260, no. 1. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac596.

Golovich, Nathan et al. “Astronomy Probes of PBH Dark Matter.” 2022 Intermediate-mass Black Holes: New Science from Stellar Evolution to Cosmology. San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 30 – May 3, 2022.

Pruett, Kerianne et al. “Primordial Black Hole Microlensing Simulations Using PopSyCLE.” 25th International Microlensing Conference. Paris, France, August 31 – September 2, 2022.