The Life and Death of Stars That Capture Primordial Black Holes
Abstract
Primordial black holes (PBHs) in the asteroid mass window (1017−1023 g) remain viable dark matter candidates and can be captured by stars. We develop the first global framework for the evolution of stars that capture PBHs, combining analytic calculations, stellar evolution models, 3D general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, and Monte Carlo population synthesis. We find that the fate of these systems bifurcates: PBHs that form an accretion disk before consuming the host drive explosive disruption, whereas PBHs captured too late or growing too slowly consume the star quietly. Capture is dominated by three-body interactions with planetary or stellar companions. For a solar-type host with a Jupiter analog, inspiral within a main-sequence lifetime requires MBHcrit≳ 1022 g, while lighter PBHs generally require tighter companions. Once deposited at the center, the PBH grows through inefficient quasi-spherical Bondi accretion; if it reaches the angular-momentum threshold before consuming the host, the inflow circularizes into a disk. Our Monte Carlo calculations yield sizable quiet-consumption and explosive-disruption populations, with final PBH masses MBH∼0.01−1 M⊙ and disk-forming PBH spins a∗≈0.8. Disk formation is the point of no return: disk winds and relativistic jets of ∼1045−1050 erg s−1 disrupt the star within minutes. The resulting transients may include a ∼day-long UV/blue signal, radio afterglow, and, if the jet escapes, an X-ray-flash/low-luminosity gamma-ray-burst (XRF/llGRB) signal. For an O(1) PBH dark matter fraction and optimistic capture assumptions, the event rate can reach that of llGRBs. The low-mass, high-spin remnants offer a complementary PBH probe and possible source for subsolar BH mergers.
Related
- Gravitational wave signals from primordial black holes orbiting solar-type stars
- Stimulated capture of axion dark matter around primordial black holes
- CMB Bounds on Primordial Black Holes via Radiation Capture
- Search for subsolar primordial black holes in low mass-ratio binaries with LIGO-Virgo O2 data and implications for the primordial black hole dark matter fraction
- Theory-constrained hierarchical inference of primordial black holes in f(Q, T) gravity with GWTC-3
BibTeX
@misc{gottlieb2026life,
title = {{The Life and Death of Stars That Capture Primordial Black Holes}},
author = {Ore Gottlieb and Matteo Cantiello and Cameron Norton and Ken Van Tilburg and Matthew Kleban},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.02700},
eprint = {2606.02700},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02700},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Life and Death of Stars That Capture Primordial Black Holes
AU - Ore Gottlieb
AU - Matteo Cantiello
AU - Cameron Norton
AU - Ken Van Tilburg
AU - Matthew Kleban
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.02700
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02700
AB - Primordial black holes (PBHs) in the asteroid mass window (10^17−10^23 g) remain viable dark matter candidates and can be captured by stars. We develop the first global framework for the evolution of stars that capture PBHs, combining analytic calculations, stellar evolution models, 3D general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, and Monte Carlo population synthesis. We find that the fate of these systems bifurcates: PBHs that form an accretion disk before consuming the host drive explosive disruption, whereas PBHs captured too late or growing too slowly consume the star quietly. Capture is dominated by three-body interactions with planetary or stellar companions. For a solar-type host with a Jupiter analog, inspiral within a main-sequence lifetime requires M_BH^crit≳ 10^22 g, while lighter PBHs generally require tighter companions. Once deposited at the center, the PBH grows through inefficient quasi-spherical Bondi accretion; if it reaches the angular-momentum threshold before consuming the host, the inflow circularizes into a disk. Our Monte Carlo calculations yield sizable quiet-consumption and explosive-disruption populations, with final PBH masses M_BH∼0.01−1 M_⊙ and disk-forming PBH spins a_∗≈0.8. Disk formation is the point of no return: disk winds and relativistic jets of ∼10^45−10^50 erg s^−1 disrupt the star within minutes. The resulting transients may include a ∼day-long UV/blue signal, radio afterglow, and, if the jet escapes, an X-ray-flash/low-luminosity gamma-ray-burst (XRF/llGRB) signal. For an O(1) PBH dark matter fraction and optimistic capture assumptions, the event rate can reach that of llGRBs. The low-mass, high-spin remnants offer a complementary PBH probe and possible source for subsolar BH mergers.
ER -