Dark Matter and Cosmology

In the highly dense environment of the early universe, primordial black holes (PBHs) could have formed at masses far below those produced from collapsing stars. These PBHs would be individually undetectable by current methods, but in large enough numbers, they could be a candidate for dark matter. Their low mass would result in high emissions of Hawking radiation on the MeV scale. With future gamma-ray telescopes, such as E-ASTROGAM and AMEGO-X, possibly launching by the end of the decade, we will finally possess sensitive enough equipment to detect emissions within that range with clarity. To help distinguish PBHs from the background, I have developed open-source code to simulate the full gamma-ray spectra of black holes ranging in mass from 10^15 to 10¹⁸ grams. This includes not only the photons emitted directly via Hawking radiation but also those produced from the inflight annihilation of emitted antiparticles, as well as the final state radiation, all accounted for. Future researchers will have an accurate reference to compare gamma-ray readings against, aiding in the identification of PBHs.