No Arabic abstract
The two recent gravitational-wave events GW190425 and GW190814 from the third observing run of LIGO/Virgo have both a companion which is unexpected if originated from a neutron star or a stellar black hole, with masses $[1.6-2.5]~M_odot$ and $[2.5-2.7]~M_odot$ and merging rates $ 460^{+1050}_{-360} $ and $ 7^{+16}_{-6}$ events/yr/Gpc$^3$ respectively, at 90% c.l.. Moreover, the recent event GW190521 has black hole components with masses 67 and $91~M_odot$, and therefore lies in the so-called pair-instability mass gap, where there should not be direct formation of stellar black holes. The possibility that all of these compact objects are Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) is investigated. The known thermal history of the Universe predicts that PBH formation is boosted at the time of the QCD transition, inducing a peak in their distribution at this particular mass scale, and a bump around $30-50~M_odot$. We find that the merging rates inferred from GW190425, GW190521 and GW190814 are consistent with PBH binaries formed by capture in dense halos in the matter era or in the early universe. At the same time, the rate of black hole mergers around $30~M_odot$ and of sub-solar PBH mergers do not exceed the LIGO/Virgo limits. Such PBHs could explain a significant fraction, or even the totality of the Dark Matter, but they must be sufficiently strongly clustered in order to be consistent with current astrophysical limits.
If primordial black holes (PBHs) formed at the quark-hadron epoch, their mass must be close to the Chandrasekhar limit, this also being the characteristic mass of stars. If they provide the dark matter (DM), the collapse fraction must be of order the cosmological baryon-to-photon ratio $sim 10^{-9}$, which suggests a scenario in which a baryon asymmetry is produced efficiently in the outgoing shock around each PBH and then propagates to the rest of the Universe. We suggest that the temperature increase in the shock provides the ingredients for hot spot electroweak baryogenesis. This also explains why baryons and DM have comparable densities, the precise ratio depending on the size of the PBH relative to the cosmological horizon at formation. The observed value of the collapse fraction and baryon asymmetry depends on the amplitude of the curvature fluctuations which generate the PBHs and may be explained by an anthropic selection effect associated with the existence of galaxies. We propose a scenario in which the quantum fluctuations of a light stochastic spectator field during inflation generate large curvature fluctuations in some regions, with the stochasticity of this field providing the basis for the required selection. Finally, we identify several observational predictions of our scenario that should be testable within the next few years. In particular, the PBH mass function could extend to sufficiently high masses to explain the black hole coalescences observed by LIGO/Virgo.
The LIGO/Virgo Collaboration has recently observed GW190521, the first binary black hole merger with at least the primary component mass in the mass gap predicted by the pair-instability supernova theory. This observation disfavors the standard stellar-origin formation scenario for the heavier black hole, motivating alternative hypotheses. We show that GW190521 cannot be explained within the Primordial Black Hole (PBH) scenario if PBHs do not accrete during their cosmological evolution, since this would require an abundance which is already in tension with current constraints. On the other hand, GW190521 may have a primordial origin if PBHs accrete efficiently before the reionization epoch.
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.
An observable stochastic background of gravitational waves is generated whenever primordial black holes are created in the early universe thanks to a small-scale enhancement of the curvature perturbation. We calculate the anisotropies and non-Gaussianity of such stochastic gravitational waves background which receive two contributions, the first at formation time and the second due to propagation effects. The former contribution can be generated if the distribution of the curvature perturbation is characterized by a local and scale-invariant shape of non-Gaussianity. Under such an assumption, we conclude that a sizeable magnitude of anisotropy and non-Gaussianity in the gravitational waves would suggest that primordial black holes may not comply the totality of the dark matter.
We calculate the exact formation probability of primordial black holes generated during the collapse at horizon re-entry of large fluctuations produced during inflation, such as those ascribed to a period of ultra-slow-roll. We show that it interpolates between a Gaussian at small values of the average density contrast and a Cauchy probability distribution at large values. The corresponding abundance of primordial black holes may be larger than the Gaussian one by several orders of magnitude. The mass function is also shifted towards larger masses.