Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from Local Primordial Black Holes with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Ackermann M, Atwood WB, Baldini L, Ballet J, Barbiellini G, Bastieri D, Bellazzini R, Berenji B, Bissaldi E, Blandford RD, Bloom ED, Bonino R, Bottacini E, Bregeon J, Bruel P, Buehler R, Cameron RA, Caputo R, Caraveo PA, Cavazzuti E, Charles E, Chekhtman A, Cheung CC, Chiaro G, Ciprini S, Cohen-Tanugi J, Conrad J, Costantin D, D'Ammando F, De Palma F, Digel SW, Di Lalla N, Di Mauro M, Di Venere L, Favuzzi C, Fegan SJ, Focke WB, Franckowiak A, Fukazawa Y, Funk S, Fusco P, Gargano F, Gasparrini D, Giglietto N, Giordano F, Giroletti M, Green D, Grenier IA, Guillemot L, Guiriec S, Horan D, Johannesson G, Johnson C, Kensei S, Kocevski D, Kuss M, Larsson S, Latronico L, Li J, Longo F, Loparco F, Lovellette MN, Lubrano P, Magill JD, Maldera S, Malyshev D, Manfreda A, Mazziotta MN, Mcenery JE, Meyer M, Michelson PF, Mitthumsiri W, Mizuno T, Monzani ME, Moretti E, Morselli A, Moskalenko IV, Negro M, Nuss E, Ojha R, Omodei N, Orienti M, Orlando E, Ormes JF, Palatiello M, Paliya VS, Paneque D, Persic M, Pesce-Rollins M, Piron F, Principe G, Raino S, Rando R, Razzano M, Razzaque S, Reimer A, Reimer O, Ritz S, Sanchez-Conde M, Sgro C, Siskind EJ, Spada F, Spandre G, Spinelli P, Suson DJ, Tajima H, Thayer JG, Thayer JB, Torres DF, Tosti G, Troja E, Valverde J, Vianello G, Wood K, Wood M, Zaharijas G (2018)

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2018

Journal

Publisher: IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Book Volume: 857

Article Number: ARTN 49

Journal Issue: 1

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aaac7b

Abstract

Black holes with masses below approximately 10(15) g are expected to emit gamma-rays with energies above a few tens of MeV, which can be detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Although black holes with these masses cannot be formed as a result of stellar evolution, they may have formed in the early universe and are therefore called primordial black holes (PBHs). Previous searches for PBHs have focused on either short-timescale bursts or the contribution of PBHs to the isotropic gamma-ray emission. We show that, in cases of individual PBHs, the Fermi-LAT is most sensitive to PBHs with temperatures above approximately 16 GeV and masses 6 x 10(11) g, which it can detect out to a distance of about 0.03 pc. These PBHs have a remaining lifetime of months to years at the start of the Fermi mission. They would appear as potentially moving point sources with gamma-ray emission that become spectrally harder and brighter with time until the PBH completely evaporates. In this paper, we develop a new algorithm to detect the proper motion of gamma-ray point sources, and apply it to 318 unassociated point sources at a high galactic latitude in the third Fermi-LAT source catalog. None of the unassociated point sources with spectra consistent with PBH evaporation show significant proper motion. Using the nondetection of PBH candidates, we derive a 99% confidence limit on the PBH evaporation rate in the vicinity of Earth, <(rho)over dot>(PBH) < 7.2 x 10(3) pc(-3) yr(-1). This limit is similar to the limits obtained with ground-based gamma-ray observatories.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Stanford University United States (USA) (US) University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot / Université Paris VII Denis Diderot France (FR) National Institute for Nuclear Physics / Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Italy (IT) University of California Santa Cruz United States (USA) (US) University of Pisa / Università di Pisa (UniPi) Italy (IT) Italian Space Agency / Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) Italy (IT) National Institute for Astrophysics / Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF) Italy (IT) United States Department of the Navy United States (USA) (US) University of Padua / Universita degli Studi di Padova Italy (IT) Stockholm University / Stockholms universitet Sweden (SE) University of Bari Aldo Moro / Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro Italy (IT) Hiroshima University Japan (JP) Clemson University United States (USA) (US) Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY Germany (DE) École Polytechnique - Université Paris-Saclay France (FR) Praxis, Inc. United States (USA) (US) Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC) Spain (ES) University of Iceland (UI) / Háskóli Íslands Iceland (IS) University of Montpellier / Université Montpellier France (FR) University of Maryland United States (USA) (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) United States (USA) (US) California State University, Los Angeles United States (USA) (US) Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) Spain (ES) University of Denver United States (USA) (US) Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut, MPP) / Max Planck Institute for Physics Germany (DE) Mahidol University / มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล Thailand (TH) University of Orléans / Université d'Orléans France (FR) Purdue University Northwest / Purdue University Calumet United States (USA) (US) George Mason University United States (USA) (US) AlbaNova University Centre / Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan AlbaNova Universitetscentrum Sweden (SE) NYCB Real-Time Computing, Inc. United States (USA) (US) University of Johannesburg South Africa (ZA)

How to cite

APA:

Ackermann, M., Atwood, W.B., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., Barbiellini, G., Bastieri, D.,... Zaharijas, G. (2018). Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from Local Primordial Black Holes with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Astrophysical Journal, 857(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaac7b

MLA:

Ackermann, Markus, et al. "Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from Local Primordial Black Holes with the Fermi Large Area Telescope." Astrophysical Journal 857.1 (2018).

BibTeX: Download