Primordial black hole stellar microlensing constraints: understanding their dependence on the density and velocity distributions

Abstract Microlensing surveys of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud constrain the fraction of the Milky Way halo in Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) with mass 10 -9 ≲ M / M ⊙ ≲ 10 4 . Various studies have reached different conclusions on the uncertainties in these constraints due to uncertainties in the Dark Matter (DM) distribution. We therefore revisit the dependence of the microlensing differential event rate, and hence exclusion limits, on the DM density and velocity distributions. The constraints on the abundance of low- and high-mass PBHs depend, respectively, on the long- and short-duration tails of the differential event rate distribution. Long-duration events are due to PBHs moving close to the line of sight and their rate (and hence the constraints on low-mass PBHs) has a fairly weak (∼ 10%) dependence on the DM density and velocity distributions. Short-duration events are due to PBHs close to the observer and their rate (and hence the constraints on moderate- and high-mass PBHs) depends much more strongly on the DM velocity distribution. An accurate calculation of the local DM velocity distribution is therefore crucial for accurately calculating PBH stellar microlensing constraints.