Searching for Very-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Bursts from Evaporating Primordial Black Holes

Abstract

Temporal and energy characteristics of the very-high-energy gamma-ray bursts from evaporating primordial black holes have been calculated by assuming that the photospheric and chromospheric effects are negligible. The technique of searching for such bursts on shower arrays is described. We show that the burst time profile and the array dead time should be taken into account to interpret experimental data. Based on data from the Andyrchy array of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory (Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences), we have obtained an upper limit on the number density of evaporating primordial black holes in a local region of space with a scale size of ~10^{-3} pc. Comparison with the results of previous experiments is made.