Axion-like particles from primordial black hole evaporation and their detection in neutrino experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates how primordial black holes could produce axion-like particles during evaporation, which can be detected via their interactions in neutrino experiments, setting new limits on axion couplings and PBH dark matter fraction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to constrain axion-like particles from PBH evaporation using neutrino detector data, providing new bounds on axion couplings and PBH dark matter contribution.

Findings

Set exclusion limits on axion-like particle couplings at Super-K and Hyper-K.

Derived upper bounds on the fraction of dark matter composed of primordial black holes.

Demonstrated the potential of neutrino experiments to probe light ALPs from PBHs.

Abstract

The primordial black holes (PBHs) play as a novel source to radiate light elementary particles of energies in the region of a few hundred MeV. We explore the possibility that the axion-like particles (ALPs) with mass less than 1 MeV are produced from PBH evaporation. The absorption of light ALPs in the underground detector targets then induces energetic photoelectron signatures in current and future neutrino experiments. Utilizing the PBH ALP event rate, we place general exclusion limits on the axion couplings at Super-K and Hyper-K. We also translate these limits into the upper bound on the fraction of DM composed of PBHs $f_{\rm PBH}$.