Density Of Primordial Black Holes Research Articles

Percolating cosmic string loops from evaporating primordial black holes

The Pulsar timing data from NANOGrav Collaboration has regenerated interest in the possibility of observing stochastic gravitational wave background arising from cosmic strings. Standard theory of formation of cosmic strings is based on a spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phase transition in the early universe, with a string network forming via the so called Kibble mechanism. This string network rapidly evolves and reaches a scaling solution with a given spectrum of string loops and long strings at any given time. This scenario necessarily requires that the entire observable Universe goes through the SSB phase transition. This would not be possible, e.g., in models of low energy inflation, where the reheat temperature is much lower than the energy scale of cosmic strings. We point out a very different possibility, where a network of even high energy scale cosmic strings can form when the temperature of the Universe is much lower. We consider local heating of plasma in the early universe by evaporating primordial black holes (PBHs). It is known that for suitable masses of PBHs, Hawking radiation of evaporating primordial black holes may re-heat the surrounding plasma to high temperatures, restoring certain symmetries locally which are broken at the ambient temperature of the Universe at that stage. Expansion of the hot plasma cools it so that the locally restored symmetry is spontaneously broken again. If this SSB supports formation of cosmic strings, then string loops will form in this region around the PBH. Further, resulting temperature gradients lead to large pressure gradients such that plasma will develop radial flow with the string loops getting stretched as they get dragged by the flow. For a finite density of PBHs of suitable masses, one will get local hot spots, each one contributing to expanding cosmic string loops. For suitable PBH density, the loops from different regions may intersect. If that happens, then intercommutation of strings can lead to percolation, leading to the possibility of formation of infinite string network, even when the entire universe never goes through the respective SSB phase transition.

Gravitational wave signatures of a PBH-generated baryon-dark matter coincidence

We propose a new way of probing non-thermal origin of baryon asymmetry of universe (BAU) and dark matter (DM) from evaporating primordial black holes (PBH) via stochastic gravitational waves (GW) emitted due to PBH density fluctuations. We adopt a baryogenesis setup where CP violating out-of-equilibrium decays of a coloured scalar, produced non-thermally at late epochs from PBH evaporation, lead to the generation of BAU. The same PBH evaporation is also responsible for non-thermal origin of superheavy DM. Unlike the case of baryogenesis {\it via leptogeneis} that necessarily corners the PBH mass to $\sim\mathcal{O}(1)$ g, here we can have PBH mass as large as $\sim\mathcal{O}(10^7)$ g due to the possibility of producing BAU directly below sphaleron decoupling temperature. Due to the larger allowed PBH mass we can also have observable GW with mHz-kHz frequencies originating from PBH density fluctuations keeping the model constrained and verifiable at ongoing as well as near future GW experiments like LIGO, BBO, DECIGO, CE, ET etc. Due to the presence of new coloured particles and baryon number violation, the model also has complementary detection prospects at laboratory experiments.

PBH-infused seesaw origin of matter and unique gravitational waves

The Standard Model, extended with three right-handed (RH) neutrinos, is the simplest model that can explain light neutrino masses, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, and dark matter (DM). Models in which RH neutrinos are light are generally easier to test in experiments. In this work, we show that, even if the RH neutrinos are super-heavy (Mi=1,2,3> 109 GeV)—close to the Grand Unification scale—the model can be tested thanks to its distinct features on the stochastic Gravitational Wave (GW) background. We consider an early Universe filled with ultralight primordial black holes (PBH) that produce a super-heavy RH neutrino DM via Hawking radiation. The other pair of RH neutrinos generates the baryon asymmetry via thermal leptogenesis, much before the PBHs evaporate. GW interferometers can test this novel spectrum of masses thanks to the GWs induced by the PBH density fluctuations. In a more refined version, wherein a U(1) gauge symmetry breaking dynamically generates the seesaw scale, the PBHs also cause observable spectral distortions on the GWs from the U(1)-breaking cosmic strings. Thence, a low-frequency GW feature related to DM genesis and detectable with a pulsar-timing array must correspond to a mid- or high-frequency GW signature related to baryogenesis at interferometer scales.

Primordial black holes and dark matter mass spectra

Abstract Because primordial black holes (PBHs) evaporate into all particle species in nature, PBHs may emit several dark matter (DM) particle species with specific mass spectra. We assume that PBHs are the only source of DMs, and DMs only interact with the standard model particles gravitationally. We show a relation between the number of DM particle species NDM and initial PBH density β and mass $M_{\rm BH}^{\rm in}$. β–$M_{\rm BH}^{\rm in}$ curves for different NDM tend to overlap with each other for heavy initial PBHs. We also show the allowed region of DM masses for multiple DMs.

Sensitivities on nonspinning and spinning primordial black hole dark matter with global 21-cm troughs

Detection of the global 21 cm signal arising from neutral hydrogen can revolutionize our understanding of the standard evolution of the Universe after recombination. In addition, it can also be an excellent probe of dark matter (DM). Among all the DM candidates, primordial black holes (PBHs) are one of the most well motivated. Hawking emission from low-mass PBHs can have a substantial effect on the thermal and ionization history of the early Universe, and that in turn can have an imprint on the global 21 cm signal. Recently EDGES has claimed a global 21 cm signal, though SARAS 3 has rejected that claim. In this work, we investigate the sensitivities on nonspinning and spinning PBHs arising from an EDGES-like measurement of the global 21 cm signal, and find that the sensitivities will be competitive with those arising from other astrophysical observables. We show that the sensitivities can be significantly strengthened depending on various uncertain astrophysical parameters. Besides, we also derive projections on the PBH density from the absorption trough expected during the Dark Ages. Our work shows that the near future unambiguous detection of the global 21 cm absorption troughs can be an excellent probe of PBH DM.

Primordial black holes and lepton flavor violation with scotogenic dark matter

Abstract We show that if the lepton flavor-violating μ → eγ process is observed in the MEG II experiment, the initial density of primordial black holes (PBHs) can be constrained with scotogenic dark matter. As a benchmark case, if PBH evaporation occurs in the radiation-dominated era, the initial density may be 2 × 10−17 ≲ β ≲ 3 × 10−16 for the $\mathcal {O}$(TeV)-scale dark sector in the scotogenic model, where β is the ratio of the PBH density ρPBH to the radiation density ρrad at the time of PBH formation. As another benchmark case, if PBHs evaporate in the PBH-dominated era, the initial density may be 1 × 10−8 ≲ β ≲ 3 × 10−7 for $\mathcal {O}$(GeV)-scale dark matter, with other $\mathcal {O}$(TeV)-scale particles in the scotogenic model.

Primordial black hole evaporation and dark matter production. II. Interplay with the freeze-in or freeze-out mechanism

If dark matter interacts with the Standard Model only gravitationally its abundance in the universe could be explained by the evaporation of primordial black holes (PBH) through Hawking radiation which ``democratically'' emits all existing particles. In these two papers, the authors study this scenario in great detail, significantly improving on previous calculations, and eventually include also interactions with the Standard Model. One curious observation is the strong dependence of the necessary density of PBH on the spin of the dark matter particles.

Primordial Black Holes and Scotogenic dark matter

We study the correlations between the initial density of primordial black holes and the lepton flavor violating μ → eγ process via scotogenic dark matter. The initial density of PBHs may be constrained with the future MEG II experiment.

Baryogenesis from ultralight primordial black holes and strong gravitational waves from cosmic strings

Ultralight primordial black holes (PBHs)(≲109g) completely evaporate via Hawking radiation (HR) and produce all the particles in a given theory regardless of their other interactions. If the right handed (RH) neutrinos are produced from PBH evaporation, successful baryogenesis via leptogenesis predicts mass scale of RH neutrinos as well as black holes. We show that, given the lepton number violation (generation of RH neutrino masses) in the theory is a consequence of a gauged U(1) breaking which is then followed by the formation of PBHs, a network of cosmic strings naturally gives rise to strong stochastic gravitational wave (GW) signal at the sensitivity level of pulsar timing arrays (PTA) and LIGO5. Besides, due to a transient period of black hole domination in the early universe, for which baryon asymmetry is independent of initial PBH density, a break in the GW spectra occurs around MHz frequency. Therefore, to observe the break along with the usual GW signal by the emission of gravitons via HR, GW detectors at higher frequencies are called for. The recent finding by the NANOGrav PTA of a stochastic common spectrum process (interpreted as GWs) across many pulsars is in tension with PBH baryogenesis for large cosmic string loops (α ≃ 0.1).

Gravitational wave constraints on the primordial black hole dominated early universe

We calculate the gravitational waves (GWs) induced by the density fluctuations due to the inhomogeneous distribution of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the case where PBHs eventually dominate and reheat the universe by Hawking evaporation. The initial PBH density fluctuations are isocurvature in nature. We find that most of the induced GWs are generated right after evaporation, when the universe transits from the PBH dominated era to the radiation dominated era and the curvature perturbation starts to oscillate wildly. The strongest constraint on the amount of the produced GWs comes from the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). We improve previous constraints on the PBH fraction and find that it cannot exceed 10-4. Furthermore, this maximum fraction decreases as the mass increases and reaches 10-12 for MPBH∼ 5×108 g, which is the largest mass allowed by the BBN constraint on the reheating temperature. Considering that PBH may cluster above a given clustering scale, we also derive a lower bound on the scale of clustering. Interestingly, the GW spectrum for MPBH∼ 104 -108 g enters the observational window of LIGO and DECIGO and could be tested in the future. Although we focus on the PBH dominated early universe in this paper, our methodology is applicable to any model with early isocurvature perturbation.

Self-interacting dark matter from primordial black holes

The evaporation of primordial black holes (PBH) with masses ranging from ~ 10-1 to ~ 109 g could have generated the whole observed dark matter (DM) relic density. It is typically assumed that after being produced, its abundance freezes and remains constant. However, thermalization and number-changing processes in the dark sector can have a strong impact, in particular enhancing the DM population by several orders of magnitude. Here we estimate the boost from general arguments such as the conservation of energy and entropy, independently from the underlying particle physics details of the dark sector. Two main consequences can be highlighted: i) As the DM abundance is increased, a smaller initial energy density of PBHs is required. ii) Thermalization in the dark sector decreases the mean DM kinetic energy, relaxing the bound from structure formation and hence, allowing light DM with mass in the keV ballpark.

Constraining the local burst rate density of primordial black holes with HAWC

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) may have been created by density fluctuations in the early Universe and could be as massive as > 109 solar masses or as small as the Planck mass. It has been postulated that a black hole has a temperature inversely-proportional to its mass and will thermally emit all species of fundamental particles via Hawking Radiation. PBHs with initial masses of ∼ 5 × 1014 g (approximately one gigaton) should be expiring today with bursts of high-energy gamma radiation in the GeV-TeV energy range. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is sensitive to gamma rays with energies of ∼300 GeV to past 100 TeV, which corresponds to the high end of the PBH burst spectrum. With its large instantaneous field-of-view of ∼ 2 sr and a duty cycle over 95%, the HAWC Observatory is well suited to perform an all-sky search for PBH bursts. We conducted a search using 959 days of HAWC data and exclude the local PBH burst rate density above 3400 pc−3 yr−1 at 99% confidence, the strongest limit on the local PBH burst rate density from any existing electromagnetic measurement.

Spin of primordial black holes

Primordial black holes, formed from rare peaks in the primordial fluctuations ζ, are non-rotating if the RMS (root mean square) fluctuation ζrms is sent to zero. We show that the spin also vanishes at first order in ζrms, suggesting the dimensionless spin parameter arms ∼ ζrms2. We identify one quadratic contribution to the spin by calculating (and extrapolating to the formation time) the torque on a black hole due to ambient acoustic waves. For a reasonable density of primordial black holes this implies a percent level spin parameter.

Initial clustering and the primordial black hole merger rate

If the primordial curvature perturbation followed a Gaussian distribution, primordial black holes (PBHs) will be Poisson distributed with no additional clustering. We consider local non-Gaussianity and its impact on the initial PBH clustering and mass function due to mode coupling between long and short wavelength modes. We show that even a small amount of non-Gaussianity results in a significant enhancement on the PBH initial clustering and subsequent merger rate and that the PBH mass function shifts to higher mass PBHs. However, as the clustering becomes strong, the local number density of PBHs becomes large, leading to a large theoretical uncertainty in the merger rate.

Multi-wavelength astronomical searches for primordial black holes

If primordial black holes of \U0001d4aa(1–100) M⊙ constitute a significant portion of the dark matter in the Universe, they should be very abundant in our Galaxy. We present here a detailed analysis of the radio and X-ray emission that these objects are expected to produce due to the accretion of gas from the interstellar medium. With respect to previous studies, we relax the assumption of a monochromatic mass function, and introduce an improved treatment of the physics of gas accretion onto isolated, moving compact objects, based on a set of state-of-the-art numerical simulations. By comparing our predictions with known radio and X-ray sources in the Galactic center region, we show that the maximum relic density of primordial black holes in the mass range of interest is ∼ 10−3 smaller than that of dark matter. The new upper bound is two orders of magnitude stronger with respect to previous results, based on a conservative phenomenological treatment of the accretion physics. We also provide a comprehensive critical discussion on the reliability of this bound, and on possible future developments in the field. We argue in particular that future multi-wavelength searches will soon start to probe the galactic population of astrophysical black holes.

Abundance of Primordial Black Holes Depends on the Shape of the Inflationary Power Spectrum.

In this Letter, combining peak theory and the numerical analysis of gravitational collapse in the radiation dominated era, we show that the abundance of primordial blacks holes, generated by an enhancement in the inflationary power spectrum, is extremely dependent on the shape of the peak. Given the amplitude of the power spectrum, we show that the density of primordial black holes generated from a narrow peak is exponentially smaller than in the case of a broad peak. Specifically, for a top-hat profile of the power spectrum in Fourier space, we find that to have primordial black holes comprising all of the dark matter, one would only need a power spectrum amplitude an order of magnitude smaller than suggested previously, whereas in the case of a narrow peak, one would instead need a much larger power spectrum amplitude, which in many cases would invalidate the perturbative analysis of cosmological perturbations. Finally, we show that, although critical collapse gives a broad mass spectrum, the density of primordial black holes formed is dominated by masses roughly equal to the cosmological horizon mass measured at horizon crossing.

Clusters of Primordial Black Holes

The Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are a well-established probe for new physics in the very early Universe. We discuss here the possibility of PBH agglomeration into clusters that may have several prominent observable features. The clusters can form due to closed domain walls appearance in the natural and hybrid inflation models whose subsequent evolution leads to PBH formation. The dynamical evolution of such clusters discussed here is of crucial importance. Such a model inherits all the advantages of uniformly distributed PBHs, like possible explanation of supermassive black holes existence (origin of the early quasars), the binary black hole mergers registered by LIGO/Virgo through gravitational waves, which could provide ways to test the model in future, the contribution to reionization of the Universe. If PBHs form clusters, they could alleviate or completely avoid existing constraints on the abundance of uniformly distributed to PBH, thus allowing PBH to be a viable dark matter candidate. Most of the existing constraints on uniform PBH density should be re-considered to the case of PBH clustering. Furthermore, unidentified cosmic gamma-ray point-like sources could be (partially) accounted. We conclude that models leading to PBH clustering are favored compared to models predicting the uniform distribution of PBHs.

Primordial black holes with an accurate QCD equation of state

Making use of definitive new lattice computations of the Standard Model thermodynamics during the quantum chromodynamic (QCD) phase transition, we calculate the enhancement in the mass distribution of primordial black holes (PBHs) due to the softening of the equation of state. We find that the enhancement peaks at approximately 0.7M⊙, with the formation rate increasing by at least two orders of magnitude due to the softening of the equation of state at this time, with a range of approximately 0.3M⊙<M<1.4M⊙ at full width half-maximum. PBH formation is increased by a smaller amount for PBHs with masses spanning a large range, 10−3M⊙<MPBH<103M⊙, which includes the masses of the BHs that LIGO detected. The most significant source of uncertainty in the number of PBHs formed is now due to unknowns in the formation process, rather than from the phase transition. A near scale-invariant density power spectrum tuned to generate a population with mass and merger rate consistent with that detected by LIGO should also produce a much larger energy density of PBHs with solar mass. The existence of BHs below the Chandresekhar mass limit would be a smoking gun for a primordial origin and they could arguably constitute a significant fraction of the cold dark matter density. They also pose a challenge to inflationary model building which seek to produce the LIGO BHs without overproducing lighter PBHs.

The maximal-density mass function for primordial black hole dark matter

The advent of gravitational wave astronomy has rekindled interest in primordial black holes (PBH) as a dark matter candidate. As there are many different observational probes of the PBH density across different masses, constraints on PBH models are dependent on the functional form of the PBH mass function. This complicates general statements about the mass functions allowed by current data, and, in particular, about the maximum total density of PBH. Numerical studies suggest that some forms of extended mass functions face tighter constraints than monochromatic mass functions, but they do not preclude the existence of a functional form for which constraints are relaxed. We use analytical arguments to show that the mass function which maximizes the fraction of the matter density in PBH subject to all constraints is a finite linear combination of monochromatic mass functions. We explicitly compute the maximum fraction of dark matter in PBH for different combinations of current constraints, allowing for total freedom of the mass function. Our framework elucidates the dependence of the maximum PBH density on the form of observational constraints, and we discuss the implications of current and future constraints for the viability of the PBH dark matter paradigm.

New X-ray bound on density of primordial black holes

We set a new upper limit on the abundance of primordial black holes (PBH) based on existing X-ray data. PBH interactions with interstellar medium should result in significant fluxes of X-ray photons, which would contribute to the observed number density of compact X-ray objects in galaxies. The data constrain PBH number density in the mass range from a few M⊙ to 2× 107 M⊙. PBH density needed to account for the origin of black holes detected by LIGO is marginally allowed.