English

Revisiting compaction functions for primordial black hole formation

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2023-08-09 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

Shibata and Sasaki [arXiv:gr-qc/9905064] introduced the so-called compaction function. Since then, it has been empirically established that the maximum value of this function (or its volume-averaged counterpart) in the long-wavelength solutions gives a very robust threshold of primordial black hole formation. In this paper, we show that in spite of initial intention, the Shibata-Sasaki compaction function cannot be interpreted as the ratio of the mass excess to the areal radius in the constant-mean-curvature slice of their choice but coincides with that in the {\it comoving} slice up to a constant factor depending on the equation of state. We also discuss the gauge-(in)dependence of the legitimate compaction function, i.e., the ratio of the mass excess to the areal radius, in the long-wavelength solutions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.13284,
  title  = {Revisiting compaction functions for primordial black hole formation},
  author = {Tomohiro Harada and Chul-Moon Yoo and Yasutaka Koga},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.13284},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

17 pages, minor correction, accepted for publication in Physical Review D

R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:18:03.808Z