Constraining primordial black holes as dark matter using AMS-02 data

Abstract

Abstract Primordial black holes (PBHs) are the plausible candidates for the cosmological dark matter. Theoretically, PBHs with masses $$M_{\textrm{PBH}}$$ M PBH in the range of $$4\times 10^{14}\sim 10^{17}\,\textrm{g}$$ 4 × 10 14 ∼ 10 17 g can emit sub-GeV electrons and positrons through Hawking radiation. Some of these particles could undergo diffusive reacceleration during propagation in the Milky Way, potentially reaching energies up to the GeV level observed by AMS-02. In this work, we utilize AMS-02 data to constrain the PBH abundance $$f_{\textrm{PBH}}$$ f PBH by employing the reacceleration mechanism. Under the assumption of a monochromatic PBH mass distribution, our findings reveal that the limit is stricter than that derived from Voyager 1 data. This difference is particularly pronounced when $$M_{\textrm{PBH}}\lesssim 10^{15}\,\textrm{g}$$ M PBH ≲ 10 15 g , exceeding an order of magnitude. The constraints are even more robust in a more realistic scenario involving a log-normal mass distribution of PBHs. Moreover, we explore the impact of varying propagation parameters and solar modulation potential within reasonable ranges, and find that such variations have minimal effects on the final results.