Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models
Published on: November 15, 2013
New constraints on macroscopic compact objects as dark matter candidates from gravitational lensing of type Ia
R Benton Metcalf1, Joseph Silk
1Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzchild-Strasse 1, 85741 Garching, Germany.
Abstract:
We use the distribution, and particularly the skewness, of high redshift type Ia supernovae brightnesses relative to the low redshift sample to constrain the density of macroscopic compact objects (MCOs) in the Universe. The supernova data favor dark matter made of microscopic particles (such as the lightest supersymmetric partner) over MCOs with masses between 10(-2)Mo and 10(10)Mo at 89% confidence. Future data will greatly improve this limit. Combined with other constraints, MCOs larger than one-tenth the mass of Earth (approximately 10(-7)Mo) can be eliminated as the sole constituent of dark matter.
Related Concept Videos
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape velocity with the...
Gravitation Between Spherically Symmetric Masses
Space-Time Curvature and the General Theory of Relativity
This has been verified in many experiments. However, space and time are no longer absolute. Two observers moving relative to one another do not agree on the length of objects or the passage of time. The mechanics of objects based on Newton's laws of motion,...
Reduced Mass Coordinates: Isolated Two-body Problem
Newton's Law of Gravitation

