Speaker
Description
The detection of gamma-ray signals from primordial black holes (PBHs) could provide compelling
evidence for their role as a dark matter candidate, particularly through the observation of their
Hawking radiation. Future gamma-ray observatories, such as e-ASTROGAM, and the next-generation
telescopes, are poised to explore this possibility by measuring both Standard Model (SM) and beyond-
the-SM particle emissions. A particularly promising avenue involves production of dark photons by
PBHs, which is a hypothetical particle that decays into photons. In this work, we investigate the
trident decay of dark photons with mass mA′ ≤ 1 MeV focusing on their primary emission from
asteroid-mass PBHs. We assume that the dark photons produced via Hawking radiation decay
into photons well before reaching Earth, thereby enhancing the detectable gamma-ray flux. The
energy spectrum of the photons decaying from the dark photons is distinct from that of direct
Hawking-radiated photons due to higher degree of freedom, leading to observable modifications in
the gamma-ray signal.
