Dark matter from higher-dimensional primordial black holes

The evaporation of primordial black holes provides a promising dark matter production mechanism without relying on any nongravitational interactions between the dark sector and the Standard Model. In theories of "large" extra dimensions (LEDs), the true scale of quantum gravity, M-*, could be well below the Planck scale, thus allowing for energetic particle collisions to produce microscopic black holes in the primordial plasma at temperatures as low as T greater than or similar to 100 GeV. Additionally, LEDs modify the relationship between black hole mass, radius, and temperature, allowing microscopic black holes to grow to macroscopic sizes in the early Universe. In this work we study three scenarios for the production of dark matter via LED black holes: (1) delayed evaporating black holes (DEBHs) which grow to macroscopic sizes before ultimately evaporating, (2) instantly evaporating black holes (IEBHs) which immediately evaporate, and (3) stable black hole relics with a mass M-* known as Planckeons. For a given reheating temperature, T-RH, we show that DEBHs produce significantly less dark matter than both IEBHs and Planckeons. IEBHs are able to produce the observed relic abundance of dark matter so long as the reheating scale is in the range 10(-2) <= T-RH/M-* <= 10(-1). We calculate the average speed for the resulting dark matter and show that it would be sufficiently cold for all dark matter masses m(dm) greater than or similar to 10(-4) GeV. This mechanism is viable for any scale of quantum gravity in the range 10(4) GeV <= M-* <= M-Pl and for any number of LEDs.