Limits on the cosmological abundance of supermassive compact objects from a search for multiple imaging in compact radio sources

P N Wilkinson; D R Henstock; I W Browne; A G Polatidis; P Augusto; A C Readhead; T J Pearson; W Xu; G B Taylor; R C Vermeulen

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.584

Limits on the cosmological abundance of supermassive compact objects from a search for multiple imaging in compact radio sources

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Jan 22;86(4):584-7. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.584.

Authors

P N Wilkinson¹, D R Henstock, I W Browne, A G Polatidis, P Augusto, A C Readhead, T J Pearson, W Xu, G B Taylor, R C Vermeulen

Affiliation

¹ University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL, United Kingdom.

PMID: 11177887
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.584

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.