Searching for Exploding Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper reviews the expected observational signatures of evaporating black holes, assesses detection sensitivities across observatories, and reports on searches for black hole explosions in Fermi data, aiming to inform quantum gravity insights.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of black hole explosion signatures, compares observatory sensitivities, and reports on archival data searches for candidate events.

Findings

No definitive black hole explosion candidates found in Fermi data

Assessment of observatory sensitivities for detecting evaporating black holes

Recommendations for future observational strategies

Abstract

The observation of the final stages of the evaporation of a light black hole, which Hawking referred to as ``black hole explosion", would offer critical insights on quantum gravity and high-energy physics phenomena. Here, we explore, review, and revisit the observational features and rates expected for nearby, light, evaporating black holes, and we assess and compare the expected sensitivity of a broad range of observatories. We then focus on the search for candidate black hole explosions in archival data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope and Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, and outline possible future observational campaigns