No Arabic abstract
Primordial black holes (PBHs) cannot be produced abundantly enough to be the dark matter in canonical single-field inflation under slow roll. This conclusion is robust to local non-Gaussian correlations between long- and short-wavelength curvature modes, which we show have no effect in slow roll on local primordial black hole abundances. For the prototypical model which evades this no go, ultra-slow roll (USR), these squeezed non-Gaussian correlations have at most an order unity effect on the variance of PBH-producing curvature fluctuations for models that would otherwise fail to form sufficient PBHs. Moreover, the transition out of USR, which is necessary for a successful model, suppresses even this small enhancement unless it causes a large increase in the inflaton kinetic energy in a fraction of an e-fold, which we call a large and fast transition. Along the way we apply the in-in formalism, the delta N formalism, and gauge transformations to compute non-Gaussianities and illuminate different aspects of the physical origin of these results. Local non-Gaussianity in the squeezed limit does not weaken the Gaussian conclusion that PBHs as dark matter in canonical single-field inflation require a complicated and fine-tuned potential shape with an epoch where slow roll is transiently violated.
We discuss the effect of local type non-Gaussianity on the abundance of primordial black holes (PBH) based on the peak theory. We provide the PBH formation criterion based on the so-called compaction function and use the peak theory statistics associated with the curvature perturbation with the local type non-Gaussianity. Providing a method to estimate the PBH abundance, we demonstrate the effects of non-Gaussianity. It is explicitly shown that the value of non-linear parameter $|f_{rm NL}| sim 1$ induces a similar effect to a few factors of difference in the amplitude of the power spectrum.
The non-Gaussian distribution of primordial perturbations has the potential to reveal the physical processes at work in the very early Universe. Local models provide a well-defined class of non-Gaussian distributions that arise naturally from the non-linear evolution of density perturbations on super-Hubble scales starting from Gaussian field fluctuations during inflation. I describe the delta-N formalism used to calculate the primordial density perturbation on large scales and then review several models for the origin of local primordial non-Gaussianity, including the cuvaton, modulated reheating and ekpyrotic scenarios. I include an appendix with a table of sign conventions used in specific papers.
Recent observational constraints indicate that primordial black holes (PBHs) with the mass scale $sim 10^{-12}M_{odot}$ can explain most of dark matter in the Universe. To produce this kind of PBHs, we need an enhance in the primordial scalar curvature perturbations to the order of ${mathcal{O}(10^{-2})}$ at the scale $ k sim 10^{12}~rm Mpc^{-1}$. Here, we investigate the production of PBHs and induced gravitational waves (GWs) in the framework of textbf{$k$-inflation}. We solve numerically the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation to obtain the primordial scalar power spectrum. In addition, we estimate the PBHs abundance $f_{text{PBH}}^{text{peak}}$ as well as the energy density parameter $Omega_{rm GW,0}$ of induced GWs. Interestingly enough is that for a special set of model parameters, we estimate the mass scale and the abundance of PBHs as $sim{cal O}(10^{-13})M_{odot}$ and $f_{text{PBH}}^{text{peak}}=0.96$, respectively. This confirms that the mechanism of PBHs production in our inflationary model can justify most of dark matter. Furthermore, we evaluate the GWs energy density parameter and conclude that it behaves like a power-law function $Omega_{rm GW}sim (f/f_c)^n$ where in the infrared limit $fll f_{c}$, the power index reads $n=3-2/ln(f_c/f)$.
Enormous information about interactions is contained in the non-Gaussianities of the primordial curvature perturbations, which are essential to break the degeneracy of inflationary models. We study the primordial bispectra for G-inflation models predicting both sharp and broad peaks in the primordial scalar power spectrum. We calculate the non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{mathrm{NL}}$ in the equilateral limit and squeezed limit numerically, and confirm that the consistency relation holds in these models. Even though $f_{mathrm{NL}}$ becomes large at the scales before the power spectrum reaches the peak and the scales where there are wiggles in the power spectrum, it remains to be small at the peak scales. Therefore, the contributions of non-Gaussianity to the scalar induced secondary gravitational waves and primordial black hole abundance are expected to be negligible.
Primordial black holes as dark matter may be generated in single-field models of inflation thanks to the enhancement at small scales of the comoving curvature perturbation. This mechanism requires leaving the slow-roll phase to enter a non-attractor phase during which the inflaton travels across a plateau and its velocity drops down exponentially. We argue that quantum diffusion has a significant impact on the primordial black hole mass fraction making the classical standard prediction not trustable.