Planck Stars: theory and observations

by Dr Francesca Vidotto (Radboud University, Nijmegen)

Thursday 25 May 2017, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

0M03 (M.S. Angelo)

Non-perturbative quantum gravity prevents the formation of curvature singularities, replaced by a "Planck Star", and may allow black holes to decay into a white hole with a lifetime much shorter than the evaporation time. Calculating the exact lifetime is a major challenge for a quantum gravity theory: in this talk, I sketch how a full computation can be done in Loop Quantum Gravity. Furthermore, this phenomenon could open to a new window for quantum-gravity phenomenology, in connection with the existence of primordial black holes. Primordial black holes decaying in this way appears compatible with the current cosmological constraints. I discuss the possibility to observe an astrophysical emission from the explosion of primordial black hole in the radio and in the gamma wavelengths. Those emissions can be discriminated from other astrophysical sources because of the peculiar way the emitted wavelength scales with the distance. In particular, the spectrum of the diffuse radiation produced by those objects presents a distortion due to this scaling.