When a Star Eats a Primordial Black Hole: Explosive or Quiet Endings

New research models how a star capturing a primordial black hole (PBH) would evolve, finding that capture is most likely in three-body systems and leads to two possible fates: a rapid, disk-driven explosion (a Hawking-star) that destroys the star, or a slower, quasi-steady consumption that leaves a massive, high-spin remnant. The explosive path would produce multimodal electromagnetic signals (X-ray flash, UV/blue transient, possibly a low-luminosity GRB) while the quiet path could emit gravitational waves in the future. Observing these outcomes could constrain how much PBHs contribute to dark matter.