Detectable seismic consequences of the interaction of a primordial black hole with Earth

Abstract

Galaxies observed today are likely to have evolved from density perturbations in the early universe. Perturbations that exceeded some critical threshold are conjectured to have undergone gravitational collapse to form primordial black holes (PBHs) at a range of masses. Such PBHs serve as candidates for cold dark matter and their detection would shed light on conditions in the early universe. Here we propose a mechanism to search for transits of PBHs through/nearby Earth by studying the associated seismic waves. Using a spectral-element method, we simulate and visualize this seismic wave field in Earth's interior. We predict the emergence of two unique signatures, namely, a wave that would arrive almost simultaneously everywhere on Earth's free surface and the excitation of unusual spheroidal modes with a characteristic frequency-spacing in free oscillation spectra. These qualitative characteristics are unaffected by the speed or proximity of the PBH trajectory. The seismic energy deposited by a proximal $M^{PBH}=10^{15}$ g PBH is comparable to a magnitude $M_w=4$ earthquake. The non-seismic collateral damage due to the actual impact of such small PBHs with Earth would be negligible. Unfortunately, the expected collision rate is very low even if PBHs constituted all of dark matter, at $\sim 10^{-7}{yr}^{-1}$, and since the rate scales as $1/M^{PBH}$, fortunately encounters with larger, Earth-threatening PBHs are exceedingly unlikely. However, the rate at which non-colliding close encounters of PBHs could be detected by seismic activity alone is roughly two orders of magnitude larger --- that is once every hundred thousand years --- than the direct collision rate.

arXiv commentAccepted, ApJ; 22 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and Methods of Detection
• New cosmological constraints on primordial black holes
• Limits on the Macho Content of the Galactic Halo from the EROS-2 Survey of the Magellanic Clouds
• EGRET Observations of the Extragalactic Gamma Ray Emission
• EROS and MACHO Combined Limits on Planetary Mass Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo
• Transient solar oscillations driven by primordial black holes
• Can one detect passage of small black hole through the Earth?
• Unexplained Sets of Seismographic Station Reports and A Set Consistent with a Quark Nugget Passage

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• The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna: Mission Studies and Science Case
• Compact Ultra Dense Matter Impactors
• Searching for small primordial black holes in planets, asteroids and here on Earth
• Improved Theoretical Predictions of Microlensing Rates for the Detection of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter
• Quantum-Mechanical Suppression of Accretion by Primordial Black Holes
• Refining Bounds for Snyder and GUP Models through Seismic Wave Analysis
• A planet or primordial black hole in the outer region of the Solar system and the dust flow near Earth orbit