Evaporating black holes: constraints on anomalous emission mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational wave observations constrain possible anomalous emission mechanisms from black holes, setting stringent limits on mass loss rates that challenge certain theories involving extra dimensions or dark particles.

Contribution

It provides new bounds on black hole mass loss rates from gravitational wave data, significantly tightening constraints on theories predicting enhanced black hole emissions.

Findings

Black hole binary formation limits anomalous emission rates

Absence of stochastic gravitational wave background constrains mass loss

Derived bounds are seven orders of magnitude more stringent

Abstract

Hawking radiation of astrophysical black holes is minute and thought to be unobservable. However, different mechanisms could contribute to an anomalously high emission rate: extra dimensions, new "dark" families of bosons or fermions, or a lower fundamental Planck scale. Do black holes flood the Universe with gravitational waves via mass loss? Here, we show that the formation of black hole binaries and the absence of a stochastic background of gravitational waves can limit the emission rate to $|\dot{M}|\lesssim 10^{-15}M_{\odot}/{\rm yr}$, seven orders of magnitude more stringent than bounds from resolvable inspiralling binaries.