What if Planet 9 is a Primordial Black Hole?

by Dr Jakub Scholtz (IPPP, Durham University)

Friday 18 Dec 2020, 14:00 → 16:00 America/New_York

In our work repoint out that the anomalous orbits of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and an excess in microlensing events in the 5-year OGLE dataset can be simultaneously explained by a new population of astrophysical bodies with mass several times that of Earth. These objects could be primordial black holes (PBHs) and we point out the orbits of TNOs would be altered if one of these PBHs was captured by the Solar System, inline with the Planet 9 hypothesis. Capture of a free floating planet is a leading explanation for the origin of Planet 9 and we show that the probability of capturing a PBH instead is comparable -- and so It is worth thinking about. The observational constraints on a PBH in the outer Solar System significantly differ from the case of a new ninth planet. This scenario could be confirmed through annihilation signals from the dark matter microhalo around the PBH. I will discuss the nature of this search in the FERMI dataset.

2020-12-18 14.25.38 December 18 BSM PANDEMIC seminar_ Jakub Scholtz (University of Turin).m4a

P9BH_RONA.pdf