Experimental Limits on Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter from the First Two Years of Kepler Data

Understand

We present the analysis on our new limits of the dark matter (DM) halo consisting of primordial black holes (PBHs) or massive compact halo objects (MACHOs).

• We present a search of the first two years of publicly available Kepler mission data for potential signatures of gravitational microlensing caused by these objects, as well as an extensive analysis of the astrophysical sources of background error.
• These include variable stars, flare events, and comets or asteroids which are moving through the Kepler field.
• We discuss the potential of detecting comets using the Kepler lightcurves, presenting measurements of two known comets and one unidentified object, most likely an asteroid or comet.