No Arabic abstract
For an arbitrary strong, spherically symmetric super-horizon curvature perturbation, we present analytical solutions of the Einstein equations in terms of asymptotic expansion over the ratio of the Hubble radius to the length-scale of the curvature perturbation under consideration. To obtain this solution we develop a recursive method of quasi-linearization which reduces the problem to a system of coupled ordinary differential equations for the $N$-th order terms in the asymptotic expansion with sources consisting of a non-linear combination of the lower order terms. We use this solution for setting initial conditions for subsequent numerical computations. For an arbitrary precision requirement predetermined by the intended accuracy and stability of the computer code, our analytical solution yields optimal truncated asymptotic expansion which can be used to find the upper limit on the moment of time when the initial conditions expressed in terms of such truncated expansion should be set. Examples of how these truncated (up to eighth order) solutions provide initial conditions with given accuracy for different radial profiles of curvature perturbations are presented.
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are an important tool in cosmology to probe the primordial spectrum of small-scale curvature perturbations that reenter the cosmological horizon during radiation domination epoch. We numerically solve the evolution of spherically symmetric highly perturbed configurations to clarify the criteria of PBHs formation using an extremely wide class of curvature profiles characterized by five parameters, (in contrast to only two parameters used in all previous papers) which specify the curvature profiles not only at the central region but also at the outer boundary of configurations. It is shown that formation or non-formation of PBHs is determined entirely by only two master parameters one of which can be presented as an integral of curvature over initial configurations and the other is presented in terms of the position of the boundary and the edge of the core.
We perform (3+1)-dimensional simulations of primordial black hole (PBH) formation starting from the spheroidal super-horizon perturbations. We investigate how the ellipticity (prolateness or oblateness) affects the threshold of PBH formation in terms of the peak amplitude of curvature perturbation. We find that, in the case of the radiation-dominated universe, the effect of ellipticity on the threshold is negligibly small for large amplitude of perturbations expected for PBH formation.
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are an important tool in cosmology to probe the primordial spectrum of small-scale curvature perturbations that reenter the cosmological horizon during radiation domination epoch. We numerically solve the evolution of spherically symmetric highly perturbed configurations to clarify the criteria of PBHs formation using a wide class of curvature profiles characterized by five parameters. It is shown that formation or non-formation of PBHs is determined essentialy by only two master parameters.
We examine the class of initial conditions which give rise to inflation. Our analysis is carried out for several popular models including: Higgs inflation, Starobinsky inflation, chaotic inflation, axion monodromy inflation and non-canonical inflation. In each case we determine the set of initial conditions which give rise to sufficient inflation, with at least $60$ e-foldings. A phase-space analysis has been performed for each of these models and the effect of the initial inflationary energy scale on inflation has been studied numerically. This paper discusses two scenarios of Higgs inflation: (i) the Higgs is coupled to the scalar curvature, (ii) the Higgs Lagrangian contains a non-canonical kinetic term. In both cases we find Higgs inflation to be very robust since it can arise for a large class of initial conditions. One of the central results of our analysis is that, for plateau-like potentials associated with the Higgs and Starobinsky models, inflation can be realised even for initial scalar field values which lie close to the minimum of the potential. This dispels a misconception relating to plateau potentials prevailing in the literature. We also find that inflation in all models is more robust for larger values of the initial energy scale.
A significant abundance of primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter can be produced by curvature perturbations with power spectrum $Delta_zeta^2(k_{mathrm{peak}})sim mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ at small scales, associated with the generation of observable scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs). However, the primordial non-Gaussianity may play a non-negligible role, which is not usually considered. We propose two inflation models that predict double peaks of order $mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$ in the power spectrum and study the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity on PBHs and SIGWs. This model is driven by a power-law potential, and has a noncanonical kinetic term whose coupling function admits two peaks. By field-redefinition, it can be recast into a canonical inflation model with two quasi-inflection points in the potential. We find that the PBH abundance will be altered saliently if non-Gaussianity parameter satisfies $|f_{mathrm{NL}}(k_{text{peak}},k_{text{peak}},k_{text{peak}})|gtrsim Delta^2_{zeta}(k_{mathrm{peak}})/(23delta^3_c) sim mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$. Whether the PBH abundance is suppressed or enhanced depends on the $f_{mathrm{NL}}$ being positive or negative, respectively. In our model, non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{mathrm{NL}}(k_{mathrm{peak}},k_{mathrm{peak}},k_{mathrm{peak}})sim mathcal{O}(1)$ takes positive sign, thus PBH abundance is suppressed dramatically. On the contrary, SIGWs are insensitive to primordial non-Gaussianity and hardly affected, so they are still within the sensitivities of space-based GWs observatories and Square Kilometer Array.