Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from Local Primordial Black Holes with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Ackermann,; and Atwood, M.; and Baldini, W. B.; and Ballet, L.; and Barbiellini, J.; and Bastieri, G.; and Bellazzini, D.; and Berenji, R.; and Bissaldi, B.; and Blandford, E.; and Bloom, R. D.; and Bonino, E. D.; and Bottacini, R.; and Bregeon, E.; and Bruel, J.; and Buehler, P.; and Cameron, R.; and Caputo, R. A.; and Caraveo, R.; and Cavazzuti, P. A.; and Charles, E.; and Chekhtman, E.; and Cheung, A.; and Chiaro, C. C.; and Ciprini, G.; and Cohen-Tanugi, S.; and Conrad, J.; and Costantin, J.; and D'Ammando, D.; and Palma, F.; and Digel, F. D.; and Lalla, S. W.; and Mauro, N. D.; and Venere, M. D.; and Favuzzi, L. D.; and Fegan, C.; and Focke, S. J.; and Franckowiak, W. B.; and Fukazawa, A.; and Funk, Y.; and Fusco, S.; and Gargano, P.; and Gasparrini, F.; and Giglietto, D.; and Giordano, N.; and Giroletti, F.; and Green, M.; and Grenier, D.; and Guillemot, I. A.; and Guiriec, L.; and Horan, S.; and Jóhannesson, D.; and Johnson, G.; and Kensei, C.; and Kocevski, S.; and Kuss, D.; and Larsson, M.; and Latronico, S.; and Li, L.; and Longo, J.; and Loparco, F.; and Lovellette, F.; and Lubrano, M. N.; and Magill, P.; and Maldera, J. D.; and Malyshev, S.; and Manfreda, D.; and Mazziotta, A.; and McEnery, M. N.; and Meyer, J. E.; and Michelson, M.; and Mitthumsiri, P. F.; and Mizuno, W.; and Monzani, T.; and Moretti, M. E.; and Morselli, E.; and Moskalenko, A.; and Negro, I. V.; and Nuss, M.; and Ojha, E.; and Omodei, R.; and Orienti, N.; and Orlando, M.; and Ormes, E.; and Palatiello, J. F.; and Paliya, M.; and Paneque, V. S.; and Persic, D.; and Pesce-Rollins, M.; and Piron, M.; and Principe, F.; and Rainò, G.; and Rando, S.; and Razzano, R.; and Razzaque, M.; and Reimer, S.; and Reimer, A.; and Ritz, O.; and Sánchez-Conde, S.; and Sgrò, M.; and Siskind, C.; and Spada, E. J.; and Spandre, F.; and Spinelli, G.; and Suson, P.; and Tajima, D. J.; and Thayer, H.; and Thayer, J. G.; and Torres, J. B.; D. F.,; Tosti, G.; Troja, And; and Valverde, E.; and Vianello, J.; and Wood, G.; and Wood, K.; and Zaharijas, M.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaac7b

Black holes with masses below approximately 1015 g are expected to emit gamma-rays with energies above a few tens of MeV, which can be detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Although black holes with these masses cannot be formed as a result of stellar evolution, they may have formed in the early universe and are therefore called primordial black holes (PBHs). Previous searches for PBHs have focused on either short-timescale bursts or the contribution of PBHs to the isotropic gamma-ray emission. We show that, in cases of individual PBHs, the Fermi-LAT is most sensitive to PBHs with temperatures above approximately 16 GeV and masses 6 ×1011 g, which it can detect out to a distance of about 0.03 pc. These PBHs have a remaining lifetime of months to years at the start of the Fermi mission. They would appear as potentially moving point sources with gamma-ray emission that become spectrally harder and brighter with time until the PBH completely evaporates. In this paper, we develop a new algorithm to detect the proper motion of gamma-ray point sources, and apply it to 318 unassociated point sources at a high galactic latitude in the third Fermi-LAT source catalog. None of the unassociated point sources with spectra consistent with PBH evaporation show significant proper motion. Using the nondetection of PBH candidates, we derive a 99% confidence limit on the PBH evaporation rate in the vicinity of Earth, PPBH < 7.2 × 103 pc-3 yr-1. This limit is similar to the limits obtained with ground-based gamma-ray observatories. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.