# Probing quantum gravity at low energies

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential of Planck stars, formed from primordial black holes, to explain fast radio bursts by analyzing their low-energy emissions and deriving constraints from extragalactic background light observations.

## Contribution

It provides new constraints on the energy output of exploding Planck stars and questions their viability as sources of fast radio bursts based on observational limits.

## Key findings

- Energy emitted by Planck stars must be less than 10^{13} erg to fit background light data.
- Primordial black hole populations must be far below existing limits to avoid excess background emissions.
- Exploding Planck stars are unlikely to account for fast radio bursts given current observational constraints.

## Abstract

Planck stars form when a collapsing shell of matter within a black hole reaches the Planck density, roughly equivalent to the mass being compressed into a volumetric size near that of the proton, and rebounds outwards. These planck stars have been considered as accounting for both fast radio bursts and short gamma ray bursts, whilst offering a comparatively low energy perspective onto quantum gravity. The observation of such an event would require black hole masses much smaller than a solar mass, which could be provided by primordial black hole dark matter models. We discuss the low energy isotropic background emissions produced by decaying primordial black holes at all epochs and derive constraints from the spectrum of the extragalactic background light. We find that, in order to avoid exceeding known extragalactic background light emissions, we must restrict the total energy emitted at low frequencies by a planck star exploding in the present epoch to be less than $10^{13}$ erg or restrict the primordial black hole population far below any existing limits. This casts doubt on whether exploding planck stars could actually account for fast radio bursts, as they are speculated to in the literature.