Today is Stephen Hawking's birthday. Several years ago he made a prediction: In the beginning matter collapsed into black holes. These are called primordial black holes (PBH). These PBHs explode at the end of their lives. Right now those with a mass equal to one mountain and a size equal to a proton are exploding, changing mass into energy. The moment one of these events is observed, and Hawking has not died, he will get a Nobel Prize.
Last year the Auger Collaboration announced in-homogenous detection of cosmic rays. In particular, in the direction of the Centaurus A galaxy, two particles with energies of 84 EeV, and 70 EeV, were detected. One Exa-electron-volt (EeV) is 1018 eV.
If these two particles were produced by PBH, Hawking will get his prize. But how could we know?
Actually I will be satisfied if one can prove that Centaurus A has a nucleus produced by PBHs. I do not know how to prove that.
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