Abstract
A universal mechanism may be responsible for several unresolved cosmic conundra. The sudden drop in the pressure of relativistic matter at W-perpendicular to/Z(0) decoupling, the quark-hadron transition and e(+)e(-) annihilation enhances the probability of primordial black hole (PBH) formation in the early Universe. Assuming the amplitude of the primordial curvature fluctuations is approximately scale-invariant, this implies a multi-modal PBH mass spectrum with peaks at 10(-6), 1, 30, and 10(6) M-circle dot. This suggests a unified PBH scenario which naturally explains the dark matter and recent microlensing observations, the LIGO/Virgo black hole mergers, the correlations in the cosmic infrared and X-ray backgrounds, and the origin of the supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei at high redshift. A distinctive prediction of our model is that LIGO/Virgo should observe black hole mergers in the mass gaps between 2 and 5M(circle dot) (where no stellar remnants are expected) and above 65M(circle dot) (where pair-instability supernovae occur) and low-mass-ratios in between. Therefore the recent detection of events GW190425, GW190814 and GW190521 with these features is striking confirmation of our prediction and may indicate a primordial origin for the black holes. In this case, the exponential sensitivity of the PBH abundance to the equation of state would offer a unique probe of the QCD phase transition. The detection of PBHs would also offer a novel way to probe the existence of new particles or phase transitions with energy between 1 MeV and 10(10) GeV. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
| Dokumententyp: | Zeitschriftenartikel |
|---|---|
| Fakultät: | Physik |
| Themengebiete: | 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik |
| ISSN: | 2212-6864 |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Dokumenten ID: | 97381 |
| Datum der Veröffentlichung auf Open Access LMU: | 05. Jun. 2023, 15:25 |
| Letzte Änderungen: | 05. Jun. 2023, 15:25 |
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