New Insights into Hawking Radiation from Primordial Black Holes

Recent research conducted by Emily Koivu and colleagues, titled "Corrections to Hawking radiation from asteroid-mass primordial black holes: Numerical evaluation of dissipative effects," delves into the intricacies of Hawking radiation as it pertains to primordial black holes (PBHs). The study, which is part of a broader series, focuses on calculating the $O(\alpha)$ corrections to Hawking radiation, specifically from asteroid-mass PBHs, using a perturbative quantum electrodynamics (QED) framework on a Schwarzschild background.

The authors generated photon spectra for PBHs with masses ranging from $1$ to $8 \times 10^{21} m_{\text{planck}}$. Their findings indicate that at lower energy levels, inner bremsstrahlung radiation emerges as the primary contributor to the Hawking radiation spectrum. Conversely, at higher energies, the $O(\alpha)$ corrections result in a suppression of the photon spectrum due to pair production, although this effect is relatively minor compared to the overall spectrum.

The research also compares the low-energy tail of their curved spacetime QED calculations with several approximation schemes documented in existing literature. The deviations noted in their findings could have significant implications for the constraints imposed by Hawking radiation on the role of primordial black holes as potential dark matter candidates.

This study is set to be submitted to Physical Review D and is expected to contribute to ongoing discussions regarding the nature of dark matter and the fundamental properties of black holes. The full paper can be accessed via arXiv at arXiv:2408.17423.