Local Flux of Low-Energy Antiprotons from Evaporating Primordial Black Holes

Abstract

We investigate low-energy cosmic-ray antiprotons ($\bar{p}$'s) arising from the fragmentation of quarks and gluons emitted from evaporating primordial black holes (PBHs). To calculate the local interstellar flux of these $\bar{p}$'s, their propagation in the Galaxy is described by a 3-D Monte Carlo simulation based on the diffusion model. This flux is used with recent observations to derive new upper limits on (i) the local PBH explosion rate $\mathcal{R}<1.7\times 10^{-2}$ pc${}^{-3}$yr${}^{-1}$, (ii) the fraction of the Universe's mass going into PBHs with particular mass, and (iii) the average density of PBHs in the Universe.

10 pages, 2 PostScript figures