Evaporating primordial black holes, the string axiverse, and hot dark
  radiation
  We show that primordial black holes (PBHs) develop non-negligible spins
through Hawking emission of the large number of axion-like particles
generically present in string theory compactifications. This is because scalars
can be emitted in the monopole mode ($l=0$), where no angular momentum is
removed from the BH, so a sufficiently large number of scalars can compensate
for the spin-down produced by fermion, gauge boson, and graviton emission. The
resulting characteristic spin distributions for $10^8$-$10^{12}$ kg PBHs could
potentially be measured by future gamma-ray observatories, provided that the
PBH abundance is not too small. This yields a unique probe of the total number
of light scalars in the fundamental theory, independent of how weakly they
interact with known matter. The present local energy density of hot, MeV-TeV,
axions produced by this Hawking emission can possibly exceed $\rho_{\rm CMB}$.
Evaporation constraints on PBHs are also somewhat weakened.
