Related papers: Black holes and Higgs stability
Primordial black holes may have formed in the radiative era of the early Universe from the collapse of large enough amplitude perturbations of the metric. These correspond to non linear energy density perturbations characterized by an…
The formation of primordial black holes in the early universe in the Brans-Dicke scalar-tensor theory of gravity is investigated. Corrections to the threshold value of density perturbations are found. Above the threshold, the gravitational…
The Standard Model Higgs potential becomes unstable at large Higgs field values where its quartic coupling becomes negative. While the tunneling lifetime of our current electroweak vacuum is comfortably longer than the age of the universe,…
We discuss the possibility of forming primordial black holes during a first-order phase transition in the early Universe. As is well known, such a phase transition proceeds through the formation of true-vacuum bubbles in a Universe that is…
In a recent work we have argued that nosy energy momentum diffusion due to space-time discreteness at the Planck scale (naturally expected to arise from quantum gravity) can be responsible for the generation of a cosmological constant…
We consider the evolution of primordial black holes in a generalyzed Jordan-Brans-Dicke cosmological model where both the Brans-Dicke scalar field and its coupling to gravity are dynamical functions determined from the evolution equations.…
We review the role of primordial black holes (PBHs) for illuminating the dark ages of the cosmological evolution and as dark matter (DM) candidates. We elucidate the role of phase transitions for primordial black hole formation in the early…
New and rather controversial observations hint that the fine structure constant \alpha may have been smaller in the early universe, suggesting that some of the fundamental ``constants'' of physics may be dynamical. In a recent paper,…
Observational constraints on gamma rays produced by the annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles around primordial black holes (PBHs) imply that these two classes of Dark Matter candidates cannot coexist. We show here that the…
A variety of scenarios for early-universe cosmology give rise to a population of primordial black holes (PBHs) with a broad spectrum of masses. The evaporation of PBHs in such scenarios has the potential to place the universe into an…
Hawking evaporation of primordial black holes (PBH) with masses ranging from $\sim 10^{-1}$ to $\sim 10^9$ g can generate the whole observed dark matter (DM) relic density. However, a second DM production mechanism, like freeze-out or…
Primordial micro black holes can constitute dark matter if short-distance gravity is modified by extra dimensions or a large number of species and if the memory-burden effect sufficiently suppresses Hawking evaporation. The resulting black…
The possibility that dark matter particles could be constituted by extreme regular primordial black holes is discussed. Extreme black holes have zero surface temperature, and are not subjected to the Hawking evaporation process. Assuming…
We consider the effect of inhomogeneities on the rate of false vacuum decay. Modelling the inhomogeneity by a black hole, we construct explicit Euclidean instantons which describe the nucleation of a bubble of true vacuum centred on the…
Recent studies point out that quantum effects, referred to as "memory burden", may slow down the evaporation of black holes. As a result, a population of light primordial black holes could potentially survive to the present day, thus…
A model for the formation of supermassive primordial black holes in galactic nuclei with the simultaneous suppression of the formation of intermediate-mass black holes is presented. A bimodal mass function for black holes formed through…
We argue that primordial black-hole formation must be described by means of extreme-value theory. This is a consequence of the large values of the energy density required to initiate the collapse of black holes in the early Universe and the…
Observations of the cosmic microwave background constrain the abundance of primordial black holes, as these would accrete gas and inject energy into the cosmological medium. We have revisited these constraints, taking into account the local…
In this paper, we investigate the production of primordial black holes (PBHs) during the radiation-dominated era. The collapse of significant density perturbations originating from large primordial scalar fluctuations generated during…
We investigate the potential impact of mass inflation inside black holes on the dynamics of the Universe, considering a recent reformulation of general relativity, proposed in [1], which prevents the vacuum energy from acting as a…