Primordial black holes and secondary gravitational waves from chaotic infiation

Chaotic inflation is inconsistent with the observational constraint at 68% CL. Here, we show that the enhancement mechanism with a peak function in the noncanonical kinetic term not only helps the chaotic model V(φ) = V_0φ~(1/3) satisfy the observational constraint at large scales but also enhances the primordial scalar power spectrum by seven orders of magnitude at small scales.The enhanced curvature perturbations can produce primordial black holes of different masses and secondary gravitational waves with different peak frequencies. We also show that the non-Gaussianities of curvature perturbations have little effect on the abundance of primordial black holes and energy density of the scalar-induced secondary gravitational waves.     

Primordial black holes and the asteroid hazard

The probability of a primordial black hole (PBH) entering into the Kuijper asteroid belt in the Solar System is calculated. It is shown that primordial black holes of certain masses can significantly modify asteroid trajectories and orbits. Such events can result in local solar-system catastrophes and global terrestrial catastrophes (e.g., the Tunguska event). The rate of such events is estimated.     

Primordial black holes in phantom cosmology

We investigate the effects of accretion of phantom energy onto primordial black holes. Since Hawking radiation and phantom energy accretion contribute to a decrease of the mass of the black hole, the primordial black hole that would be expected to decay now due to the Hawking process would decay earlier due to the inclusion of the phantom energy. Equivalently, to have the primordial black hole decay now it would have to be more massive initially. We find that the effect of the phantom energy is substantial and the black holes decaying now would be much more massive—over ten orders of magnitude! This effect will be relevant for determining the time of production and hence the number of evaporating black holes expected in a universe accelerating due to phantom energy.     

Primordial seeds of supermassive black holes

Supermassive black holes exist in the centers of galaxies, including Milky Way, but there is no compelling theory of their formation. Furthermore, observations of quasars imply that supermassive black holes have already existed at some very high redshifts, suggesting the possibility of their primordial origin. In a class of well-motivated models, inflationary epoch could include two or more periods of inflation dominated by different scalar fields. The transition between such periods of inflation could enhance the spectrum of density perturbations on some specific scale, which could lead to formation of primordial black holes with a very narrow range of masses of the order of 10⁵ solar masses. These primordial black holes could have provided the requisite seeds for the observed population of supermassive black holes.     

Primordial black holes and third order scalar induced gravitational waves

The process of primordial black hole (PBH) formation is inevitably accompanied by scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs). The strong correlation between PBH and SIGW signals may offer a promising approach to detecting PBHs in upcoming gravitational wave experiments, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We investigate third order SIGWs during a radiation-dominated era in the case of the monochromatic primordial power spectrum \begin{document}$ \mathcal{P}_{\zeta}=A_{\zeta}k_*\delta\left(k-k_*\right) $\end{document}. For LISA observations, the relationships between the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and monochromatic primordial power spectrum are studied systematically, revealing that the effects of third order SIGWs extend the cutoff frequency from \begin{document}$ 2f_* $\end{document} to \begin{document}$ 3f_* $\end{document} and lead to an approximately 200% increase in the SNR for the frequency band from \begin{document}$ 10^{-5} $\end{document}Hz to \begin{document}$ 1.6\times 10^{-3} $\end{document}Hz, corresponding to PBHs with masses in the range \begin{document}$4\times 10^{-12}M_{\odot} \sim 10^{-7}M_{\odot}$\end{document}. We find that there is a critical value, \begin{document}$ A_*=1.76\times 10^{-2} $\end{document}, for the amplitude of the monochromatic primordial power spectra, such that when \begin{document}$ A_{\zeta}>A_* $\end{document}, the energy density of third order SIGWs is larger than that of second order SIGWs.     

Primordial black holes generated by the non-minimal spectator field

We improve and generalize the non-minimal curvaton model originally proposed in arXiv:2112.12680 to a model in which a spectator field non-minimally couples to an inflaton field and the power spectrum of the perturbation of spectator field at small scales is dramatically enhanced by the sharp feature in the form of non-minimal coupling.At or after the end of inflation,the perturbation of the spectator field is converted into curvature perturbation and leads to the formation of primordial black h...     

Primordial black holes and the observed Galactic 511 keV line

The observed 511 keV line from the Galactic Bulge is a real challenge for theoretical astrophysics: despite a lot of suggested mechanisms, there is still no convincing explanation and the origin of the annihilated positrons remains unknown. Here we discuss the possibility that a population of slowly evaporating primordial black holes with the mass around 10¹⁶–10¹⁷ g ejects (among other particles) low-energy positrons into the Galaxy. In addition to positrons, we have also calculated the spectrum and number density of photons and neutrinos produced by such black holes and found that the photons are potentially observable in the near future, while the neutrino flux is too weak and below the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial backgrounds. Depending on their mass distribution, such black holes could make a small fraction or the whole cosmological dark matter.     

Primordial black holes and baryon production in grand unified theories

It is suggested that baryon production through primordial black holes in grand unified theories is not likely to generate an important number of baryons.     

Primordial supersymmetric inflation

We discuss the motivations for reconsidering cosmological inflation in supersymmetric theories as contrasted with conventional GUTs. Radiative corrections to the effective potential can be made arbitrarily small in supersymmetric GUTs, removing some of the obstacles to inflation. We analyze general renormalizable potentials at the tree level and show that the required fine-tuning of parameters becomes less acute if inflation takes place before the grand unified phase transition, a hypothesis we term primordial inflation. We show how the grand unified monopole problem can be solved in supersymmetric GUTs embodying primordial inflation.     

Primordial braneworld black holes: Significant enhancement of lifetimes through accretion

The Randall-Sundrum (RS-II) braneworld cosmological model with a fraction of the total energy density in primordial black holes is considered. Due to their 5d geometry, these black holes undergo modified Hawking evaporation. It is shown that during the high-energy regime, accretion from the surrounding radiation bath is dominant compared to evaporation. This effect increases the mass of the black holes till the onset of matter (or black hole) domination of the total energy density. Thus black holes with even very small initial masses could survive till several cosmologically interesting eras.     

Virtual black holes in generalized dilaton theories

The virtual black hole phenomenon, which has been observed previously in specific models, is established for generic 2D dilaton gravity theories with scalar matter. The ensuing effective line element can become asymptotically flat only for two classes of models; among them spherically reduced theories and the string inspired dilaton black hole. We present simple expressions for the lowest order scalar field vertices of the effective theory which one obtains after integrating out geometry exactly. Treating the boundary in a natural and simple way, asymptotic states, tree-level vertices and the tree-level S-matrix are conformally invariant. Examples are provided pinpointing the physical consequences of virtual black holes on the (CPT-invariant) S-matrix for gravitational scattering of scalar particles. For minimally coupled scalars the evaluation of the S-matrix in closed form is straightforward. For a class of theories including the string inspired dilation black hole all tree-graph vertices vanish, which explains the particular simplicity of that model and at the same time shows yet another essential difference to the Schwarzschild case.Received: 7 August 2002, Revised: 2 June 2003, Published online: 11 July 2003D.V. Vassilevich: On leave from V. Fock Institute of Physics, St. Petersburg University, 198904 St. Petersburg, Russia     

Primordial two-component maximally symmetric inflation

We propose a two-component inflation model, based on maximally symmetric supergravity, where the scales of reheating and the inflation potential at the origin are decoupled. This is possible because of the second-order phase transition from SU(5) to SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) that takes place when φ?φ_c<φ₀, when φ₀?O(M) is the value of the inflation at the global minimum, and leads to a reheating temperature T_R?(10¹⁵–10¹⁶) GeV. This makes it possible to generate baryon asymmetry in the conventional way without any conflict with experimental data on proton lifetime. The mass of the gravitinos is $\text{m}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>3</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{?10}{}^{12}\text{GeV}$, thus avoiding the gravitino problem. Monopoles are diluted by residual inflation in the broken phase below the cosmological bounds if φ_c?0.3M.     

Primordial shear and the question of inflation

The role of primordial shear in two inflationary scenarios, Planck-time (Linde) inflation and the GUT inflation is discussed. In the Linde picture, including a simple “particle creation” term produces universes in which the temperature rapidly attains a stable asymptotic value just below the Planck temperature, whatever the Higgs field coupling constant. Such universes are truly isotropic by the time the GUT era is reached. (There is no supercooling because of particle creation.) In the GUT picture, inflation can occur notwithstanding the presence of anisotropy. However, in these models, initial anisotropy reduces the GUT era coherence length and it becomes more difficult to form the present universe from a single bubble.