English

Experimental Limits on Planetary Mass Primordial Black Hole Mergers

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-01-21 v3

Abstract

The multi-mode acoustic gravitational wave experiment (MAGE) is a high-frequency gravitational wave detection experiment featuring cryogenic quartz bulk acoustic wave resonators operating as sensitive strain antennas in the MHz regime. After 61 days of non-continuous data collection, we present bounds on the observable merger rate density of primordial black hole binary systems of chirp mass 1.2×104M<M<1.7×109M1.2\times10^{-4}M_\odot<\mathcal{M}<1.7\times10^{-9}M_\odot. The maximum achieved limit on the merger rate density is R>1.3×1018 kpc3yr1\mathcal{R}>1.3\times10^{18}~\mathrm{kpc}^{-3}\mathrm{yr}^{-1} which corresponds to constraining yearly mergers to a distance of reach on the order of the solar system, or 1.0×1061.0\times10^{-6} kpc during the observational period. In addition, we exclude significantly rare and strong events similar to those observed in previous predecessor experiments as non-gravitational background signals, utilising coincident analysis between multiple detectors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.03609,
  title  = {Experimental Limits on Planetary Mass Primordial Black Hole Mergers},
  author = {William M. Campbell and Leonardo Mariani and Michael E. Tobar and Maxim Goryachev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.03609},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted: https://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/10.1103/c1kj-rj3c