Related papers: Primordial Black Holes and Higgs Vacuum Decay
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…
This talk reviews our recent work showing how tiny black holes can act as nucleation sites for the decay of the metastable Higgs vacuum. We start by discussing the formation of thin wall bubbles of true vacuum inside a false vacuum, and…
It was recently demonstrated that small small black holes can act as seeds for nucleating decay of the metastable Higgs vacuum, dramatically increasing the tunneling probability. Any primordial black hole lighter than $4.5 \times 10^{14}$g…
A recent understanding on how quantum effects may affect black-hole evolution opens new scenarios for dark matter, in connection with the presence of black holes in the very early universe. Quantum fluctuations of the geometry allow for…
Phase transitions in the early universe are prime settings for the production of primordial black holes, since they can break the relatively quiescent homogeneity and isotropy of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmologies. These epochs of…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) may be part of the dark matter. It is shown here that PBHs form more easily during cosmic phase transitions. For approximately scale-invariant primordial curvature fluctuations the PBH mass function may…
We study the effect of primordial black holes on the classical rate of nucleation of AdS regions within the standard electroweak vacuum. We find that the energy barrier for transitions to the new vacuum, which characterizes the exponential…
A new mechanism of black hole formation in a first order phase transition is proposed. In vacuum bubble collisions the interaction of bubble walls leads to the formation of nontrivial vacuum configuration. The consequent collapse of this…
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…
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…
We discuss recent developments in the study of primordial black holes, focussing particularly on their formation and quantum evaporation. Such studies can place important constraints on models of the early Universe. An especially…
Black holes, dark energy, and the Higgs field are all currently established, exciting, and mysterious, each in its own way. Cosmological data show that dark energy may evolve with time. The electroweak phase transition during stellar…
In this chapter we first describe the early history of primordial black hole (PBH) research. We then discuss their possible formation mechanisms, including critical collapse from inflationary fluctuations and various types of phase…
Small black holes should have formed in the early Universe if the density contrast was high enough. This article aims at giving a - biased and partial - short overview of the latest breakthroughs in this field. It first deals with tentative…
We discuss the effect of gravitational interactions on the lifetime of the Higgs vacuum where generic quantum gravity corrections are taken into account. We show how small black holes can act as seeds for vacuum decay, spontaneously…
The collapse of sufficiently large closed domain wall produced during second order phase transition in the vacuum state of a scalar field can lead to the formation of black hole. The origin of domain walls with appropriate size and energy…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are of special interest because of the crucial role of quantum effects in their formation and evaporation. This means that they provide a unique probe of the early universe, high-energy physics and quantum…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a profound signature of primordial cosmological structures and provide a theoretical tool to study nontrivial physics of the early Universe. The mechanisms of PBH formation are discussed and observational…
In these notes we present a summary of existing ideas about phase transitions of black hole spacetimes in semiclassical gravity and offer some thoughts on three possible scenarios by which these transitions could take place. Our first theme…
In first-order phase transitions in the early universe, the bubble wall is expected to be significantly slowed-down by its interaction with the surrounding plasma. We examine the behaviour of the phase of the Higgs field after two-bubble…