Strong constraints on clustered primordial black holes as dark matter

Abstract

The idea of dark matter in the form of primordial black holes has seen a recent revival triggered by the LIGO detection of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers. In this context, it has been argued that a large initial clustering of primordial black holes can help alleviate the strong constraints on this scenario. In this work, we show that on the contrary, with large initial clustering the problem is exacerbated and constraints on primordial black hole dark matter become overwhelmingly strong.

Comments: 9 pages, 6 figures. Discussion extended, in particular to include extended PBH mass functions. Version to appear in PRD