SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2407.17006

Large fluctuations and Primordial Black Holes

Abstract

In this paper, we review in detail different mechanisms of generation of large primordial fluctuations and their implications for the production of primordial black holes (PBHs) and scalar-induced secondary gravity waves (SIGW), with the ultimate aim of understanding the impact of loop correction on quantum correlations and the power spectrum. To accomplish the goal, we provide a concise, comprehensive, but in depth review of conceptual and technical details of the standard model of the universe, namely, causal structure and inflation, quantization of primordial perturbations and field theoretic techniques such as "in-in" formalism needed for the estimation of loop correction to the power spectrum. We discuss at length the severe constraints (no-go) on PBH production in single-field inflation imposed by appropriately renormalized quantum loop corrections, computed while maintaining the validity of the perturbation framework and assuming sufficient inflation to address the causality problem. Thereafter, we discuss in detail the efforts to circumvent the no-go result in Galileon inflation, multiple sharp transition (MST)-induced inflation, and stochastic single field inflation using an effective field theoretic (EFT) framework applicable to a variety of models. We provide a thorough analysis of the Dynamical Renormalization Group (DRG) resummation approach, adiabatic and late-time renormalization schemes, and their use in producing solar and sub-solar mass PBHs. Additionally, we give a summary of how scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) are produced in MST setups and Galileon inflation.Finally, the PBH overproduction issue is thoroughly discussed.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Sayantan Choudhury, M. Sami. 2024-07-24. Large fluctuations and Primordial Black Holes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physrep.2024.10.007

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc