Determining the Density of Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter via Microlensing

<p dir="ltr">In light of the null results of dark matter direct detection experiments, the Primordial Black Hole (PBH) has experienced a resurgence as a plausible dark matter candidate. Although four decades of experiments have tightly constrained PBH dark matter in most mass ranges, the asteroid-mass gap (10⁻¹⁶ − 10⁻¹¹<i>M</i>_⊙) remains largely unconstrained, where PBHs with asteroid masses may still account for all dark matter. This thesis introduces the Asteroid-Mass Primordial black hole Microlensing (AMPM) survey, a microlensing project to detect low-mass PBHs towards the Large Magellanic Cloud and place limits on PBHs as dark matter in the Milky Way.</p>