Probing Ultra-light Primordial Black Holes as a Dark Matter Candidate (2210.00072v2)

Abstract: Dark Matter (DM) is omnipresent in our universe. Despite its abundance, the microscopic identity of DM still remains a mystery. Primordial black holes (PBHs), possibly formed via gravitational collapse of large density perturbations in the early universe, are one of the earliest proposed and viable DM candidates. Recent studies indicate that PBHs can make up a large or even entire fraction of the DM density for a wide range of masses. Here, we briefly review the observational constraints on PBHs as DM, concentrating on the ultra-light mass window. Ultra-light PBHs emit particles via Hawking radiation and can be probed by observing such Hawking evaporated particles in various space as well as ground based detectors. We also outline how next-generation gamma ray telescopes can set a stringent exclusion limit on ultra-light PBH DM by probing low energy photons.