Primordial Black Holes in Phantom Cosmology

Abstract

We investigate the effects of accretion of phantom energy onto primordial black holes. Since Hawking radiation and phantom energy accretion contribute to a {\it decrease} of the mass of the black hole, the primordial black hole that would be expected to decay now due to the Hawking process would decay {\it earlier} due to the inclusion of the phantom energy. Equivalently, to have the primordial black hole decay now it would have to be more massive initially. We find that the effect of the phantom energy is substantial and the black holes decaying now would be {\it much} more massive -- over 10 orders of magnitude! This effect will be relevant for determining the time of production and hence the number of evaporating black holes expected in a universe accelerating due to phantom energy.