Searching gamma-ray bursts for gravitational lensing echoes - Implications for compact dark matter

The first available 44 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory have been inspected for echo signals following shortly after the main signal. No significant echoes have been found. Echoes would have been expected were the GRBs distant enough and the universe populated with a sufficient density of compact objects. composing the dark matter. Constraints on dark matter abundance and GRB redshifts from the present data are presented and discussed. Based on these preliminary results, a universe filled to critical density of compact objects between 10⁶. 5^ Mₛun_ and 10⁸. 1^ Mₛun_ are now marginally excluded, or the most likely cosmological distance paradigm for GRBs is not correct. We expect future constraints to be able either to test currently popular cosmological dark matter paradigms or to indicate that GRBs do not lie at cosmological distances.