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Published on: November 15, 2013
Limits on the cosmological abundance of supermassive compact objects from a search for multiple imaging in compact
P N Wilkinson1, D R Henstock, I W Browne
1University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Using very long baseline interferometry we have searched a sample of 300 compact radio sources for examples of multiple imaging produced by gravitational lensing; no multiple images were found with separations in the angular range 1.5--50 milliarcsec. This null result allows us to place a limit on the cosmological abundance of intergalactic supermassive compact objects in the mass range approximately 10(6)M( middle dot in circle) to approximately 10(8)M( middle dot in circle); such objects cannot make up more than approximately 1% of the closure density ( 95% confidence). A uniformly distributed population of supermassive black holes forming soon after the big bang does not, therefore, contribute significantly to the dark matter content of the Universe.
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