UC Santa Cruz

Gravitational microlensing is one of the strongest observational techniques to observe non-luminous astrophysical bodies. Existing observations by the Subaru telescope, as well as next-generation surveys such as Roman Space Telescope's Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey, allow us to search for compact dark matter as well as free-floating planets. Additionally, if a significant fraction of dark matter is comprised of primordial black holes, this would have distinct observable impacts on stellar formation and possibly act as a catalyst for baryogenesis. This thesis explores the phenomenology of primordial black holes as well as the current and future constraints on non-luminous compact populations from gravitational microlensing.