Dark Matter Primordial Black Holes Under the Scrutiny of LIGO's Observations

暗物质的性质至今仍是物理学中最基本的问题之一。该项目将通过激光干涉仪引力波天文台和未来的激光干涉仪空间天线进行引力波观测，这是我们寻找暗物质本质和理解早期宇宙的工具集的一部分。PI将开发用于分析GW数据的软件，以深入了解宇宙起源时黑洞的形成（原始黑洞或PBH）。这些黑洞是一些暗物质模型的潜在重要组成部分，而暗物质是我们宇宙中一个尚未被识别的关键组成部分。指导一名研究生和三名本科生进行引力波研究和数据分析。在数据科学对美国未来的繁荣和安全具有重要意义的时代，这将使他们能够在学术界或工业界追求未来的职业生涯。PI将为当地社区提供公开讲座和组织业余天文活动，使天文学和天体物理学领域更具包容性。该项目将开发新的探测器，在引力波观测中寻找原始黑洞（PBH）暗物质的信号。它将使用LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA合作项目的最新和即将到来的数据直接测试PBH暗物质的预测。它还将开发利用下一代引力波天文台的未来观测数据的方法，以测试PBH暗物质模型所期望的各种特征。该项目将利用现有的全部信息，包括合并黑洞的质量、自旋、轨道偏心率和红移分布，并将解决未来各种引力波天文台的问题。该项目将采用和发展分析和半数值模型来研究紧凑天体对的动态形成，通过发生在球状星团核心，密集恒星环境和密集暗物质晕的多种途径。这将允许比较引力波中潜在的暗物质信号和它们最接近的传统天体物理恒星质量黑洞背景。该项目将直接探测原始黑洞的质量谱，最高可达数百个太阳质量，并显著提高我们对早期宇宙中原始扰动的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The nature of dark matter remains to date one of the most fundamental questions of physics. This project will make gravitational-wave observations by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a part of our toolset in searching for the nature of dark matter and in understanding the early universe. The PI will develop software to analyze GW data in order to gain insight on the creation of black holes at the beginning of the Universe (primordial black holes or PBH). These BHs are a potential important component of some models for dark matter, a critical component of our Universe that has yet to be identified. A graduate student and three undergraduate students will be mentored in gravitational-wave research and data analysis. This will allow them to pursue future careers in academia or industry at an era when data science is of great significance to the future prosperity and security of the US. The PI will give public talks and organize amateur astronomy events accessible to the local community, making the field of astronomy and astrophysics a more inclusive one. This project will develop new probes to search for signals of primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter at gravitational-wave observations. It will directly test the predictions of PBH dark matter using new and upcoming data from the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaborations. It will also develop the means to use future observations from next-generation gravitational-wave observatories, to test the wide variety of features expected from the PBH dark matter model. This project will use the full information available, including the masses, spins, orbital eccentricity and redshift distribution of the merging black holes, and will address a wide variety of future gravitational-wave observatories. This project will employ and develop analytical and semi-numerical modeling to study the dynamical formation of compact object pairs, via multiple pathways that occur at the cores of globular clusters, dense stellar environments and dense dark matter halos. This will allow the comparison of the potential dark matter signals in gravitational waves and their closest more conventional astrophysical stellar mass black hole backgrounds next to each other. The project will directly probe the primordial black holes mass spectrum up to hundreds of solar masses and significantly improve our understanding for the primordial perturbations in the early Universe.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.