Gravitational Scattering of Oort Cloud Objects by Dark Matter: Constraints on the Primordial Black Hole Fraction
astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.EP, astro-ph.SR
Submitted: 2026-04-24
Updated: 2026-09-06
Comments: 10 pages, 2 figure, submitted to PRD
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Planetary systems can act as long-term gravitational detectors for dark matter.
Terminology
Abstract
Planetary systems can act as long-term gravitational detectors for dark matter. We investigate the gravitational scattering of Oort cloud objects by primordial black holes (PBHs) using celestial kinematics in the impulsive approximation. By evaluating the energy transfer during these encounters, we compute the rates at which stellar-mass PBHs eject icy planetesimals or inject them into Earth-crossing orbits, demonstrating a linear scaling Γ proportional to m PBH. Comparing these theoretical rates with four independent observables---Oort cloud survival limits, dynamically new long-period comet fluxes, and pristine terrestrial and lunar impact records---we derive stringent upper limits on the PBH dark matter fraction, f PBH. Our most robust combined constraint yields f PBH 0.65 (m PBH/M)-1, which excludes PBHs as the dominant dark matter component in the intermediate-to-high mass window of 10 squared M m PBH 10 5 M. Furthermore, the solar motion through the Galactic halo induces a ``dark matter wind,'' generating a pronounced dipole anisotropy in the arrival directions of PBH-injected comets. This geometrical signature, manifesting as a about 2.7:1 hemispherical asymmetry (and a about 40:1 polar contrast) between the anti-apex and apex directions, provides a robust, testable discriminant against isotropic stellar perturbations. This distinct signature could be statistically detected with the discovery of O(10 2) new long-period comets by upcoming surveys such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Rubin Observatory.
Sources
- Possibility of Primordial black holes Collision with Earth and the Consequences
- Primordial black hole collision with neutron stars and astrophysical black holes and the observational signatures
- Science-Driven Optimization of the LSST Observing Strategy
- Massive Primordial Black Holes from Hybrid Inflation as Dark Matter and the seeds of Galaxies
Related papers
- Angular clustering and bias of photometric quasars in the Kilo-Degree Survey Data Release 4
- A Novel kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Estimator for Electron-Electron Correlations
- Magnetic fields at the dawn of structure formation I. The CARLA J1510+5958 proto-cluster
- Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results: Weak Lensing and Galaxy Clustering Cosmological Analysis Framework
- Exploring the Impact of Systematic Bias in Type Ia Supernova Cosmology Across Diverse Dark Energy Parametrizations
- Non-Gaussian Galaxy Stochasticity and the Noise-Field Formulation