arXiv subjects

Cristiano Germani

Publications and source records attributed to Cristiano Germani.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ramp and plateau in bulk correlators within the disk topology in JT gravity

We study bulk two-point correlation functions of a massless scalar field in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity around the eternal black hole saddle. While same-side correlators exhibit exponential decay, two sided correlators, at the next to leading order in steepest descent approximation, exhibit a ramp followed by a plateau after the initial semiclassical exponential decay. Our results indicate that the late-time saturation of two-sided correlators is already visible within the perturbative saddle expansion of the bulk path integral, without invoking nonperturbative e^{-S} effects. Finally, we show that the dip-time, defined as the minimum of the correlator, grows inversely with the black hole temperature, consistent with expectations from the holographic dual.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

The trichotomy of primordial black holes initial conditions

We show that the threshold to form a black hole, in an asymptotically flat and radiation-dominated Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) Universe, is not solely (mainly) determined by the behaviour of the compaction function at its extrema, as earlier thought, but also by the Ricci scalar of the spatial geometry at smaller (but super-horizon) scales, which we call ``the core''. We introduce three classes of initial conditions characterised by an open (O), closed (C), or flat (F) FRW core surrounded by a shell with higher three-dimensional curvature. In the C case, the core helps the collapse so that the black hole formation threshold is the lowest among all cases. Type-II black holes might only be generated by Type-O or F (each of those with different thresholds, with O being the highest) or by a Type-C with a negligible Ricci scalar at the centre, which we call an effective F core. Finally, we argue that an F core is typically more probable for a sharp power spectrum, however, it is also more likely related to non-spherical initial conditions. On the other hand, a very broad power spectrum, which might be related to the observed NanoGrav signal, would favour the formation of Type-I black holes with a mass spectrum peaked at the Infra-Red scale.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Peaks sphericity of non-Gaussian random fields

We formulate the statistics of peaks of non-Gaussian random fields and implement it to study the sphericity of peaks. For non-Gaussianity of the local type, we present a general formalism valid regardless of how large the deviation from Gaussian statistics is. For general types of non-Gaussianity, we provide a framework that applies to any system with a given power spectrum and the corresponding bispectrum in the regime in which contributions from higher-order correlators can be neglected. We present an explicit expression for the most probable values of the sphericity parameters, including the effect of non-Gaussianity on the shape. We show that the effects of small perturbative non-Gaussianity on the sphericity parameters are negligible, as they are even smaller than the subleading Gaussian corrections. In contrast, we find that large non-Gaussianity can significantly distort the peak configurations, making them much less spherical.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Unexpected shape of the primordial black hole mass function

In a Universe with nearly-Gaussian initial curvature perturbations, the abundance of primordial black holes can be derived from the curvature power spectrum. When the latter is enhanced within a narrow range around a characteristic scale, the resulting mass function has a single distinct peak, corresponding to Schwarzschild radii set by the horizon entry time of that scale. In contrast, we show (both numerically and by providing an analytic estimation) that a broad enhancement - such as a plateau bounded by infrared and ultraviolet scales - produces a bimodal mass function, with a primary peak close to the infrared scale. We find that the typical initial gravitational potential (compaction function), conditioned on meeting the threshold for critical collapse, is generated by a thin spherical shell with infrared radius and a thickness comparable to the ultraviolet scale. This suggests a higher-than-expected abundance of PBH originating from Type II initial fluctuations. Our results significantly impact overproduction bounds on the amplitude of the power spectrum, and tighten the viable mass range for primordial black holes as dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Small noise expansion of stochastic inflation

By introducing the small noise expansion techniques, we show that the fully nonlinear (non-Markovian) stochastic inflationary system, may be re-cast in terms of an infinite set of Wiener processes (stochastic equations with white noises). As a byproduct, we show that the Starobinsky test field approximation might only provide information about the linear regime of cosmological perturbations and scalar-feld non-Gaussianities might only appear at leading order in slow-roll parameters.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

The statistics of primordial black holes in a radiation dominated Universe -- recent and new results

We review the non-linear statistics of Primordial Black Holes that form from the collapse of over-densities in a radiation dominated Universe. We focus on the scenario in which large over-densities are generated by rare and Gaussian curvature perturbations during inflation. As new results, we show that the mass spectrum follows a power law determined by the critical exponent of the self-similar collapse up to a power spectrum dependent cut-off, and that the abundance related to very narrow power spectra is exponentially suppressed. Related to this, we discuss and explicitly show that the Press-Schechter approximation, as well as the statistics of mean profiles, lead to wrong conclusions for the abundance and mass spectrum. Finally, we clarify that the transfer function in the statistics of initial conditions for primordial black holes formation (the abundance) does not play a significant role.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

An update on adiabatic modes in cosmology and $δ$N formalism

In this paper, we generalize the Weinberg's procedure to determine the comoving curvature perturbation $\cal R$ to non-attractor inflationary regimes. We show that both modes of $\cal R$ are related to a symmetry of the perturbative equations in the Newtonian gauge. As a byproduct, we clarify that adiabaticity does not generally imply constancy of $\cal R$, not even in the $k\rightarrow 0$ limit. We then show that there exist non-equivalent definitions of $δN$ that would reproduce $\mathcal{R}$ or the uniform density curvature perturbation $ζ$ at linear order. We have then shown that the perturbative $δN$ definition in terms of difference between the number of e-foldings of different gauges, can be extended non-perturbatively at leading order in gradient expansion. Nevertheless, the computer friendly definition in terms of the difference of e-foldings obtained from the evolution of a local FRW Universe, respectively with perturbed and un-perturbed initial conditions, might only give information about the linear order curvature perturbations, contrary to what stated in the literature.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Retrieving black hole information from the main Lorentzian saddle point

One of the most striking evidences of the information loss paradox is that, according to the Hawking's calculation, the correlation functions of a test scalar field exponentially decay in time. In this paper, I argue that a judicious use of the steepest descent expansion on the classical saddle point (the Black Hole background), is enough to change this early time decay into a late time growing, in agreement with information retrieval. I will explicitly show this in the Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. There, the so-called "ramp" in the bulk tow-point function, is analytically obtained without the need of any other subdominant configurations of the gravity path integral.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Stochastic inflation at all order in slow-roll parameters: foundations

In this paper we develop the formalism for the stochastic approach to inflation at all order in slow-roll parameters. This is done by including the momentum and Hamiltonian constraints into the stochastic equations. We then specialise to the widely used Starobinski approximation where interactions between IR and UV modes are neglected. We show that, whenever this approximation holds, no significant deviations are observed when comparing the two-point correlation functions (power spectrum) calculated with stochastic methods, to the ones calculated with the QFT approach to linear theory. As a byproduct, we argue that: a) the approaches based on the Starobinski approximation, generically, do not capture any loop effects of the quantum scalar-gravity system; b) correlations functions can only be calculated in the linear theory regimes, thus, no non-perturbative statistics can be extracted within this approximation, as commonly claimed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Analytical thresholds for black hole formation in general cosmological backgrounds

We consider black holes which form from an initially spherically symmetric super-Hubble perturbation of a cosmological background filled by a perfect fluid $p=w ρ$ with $w\in (0,1]$. Previous work has shown that when $w = 1/3$ (radiation), there is a critical threshold for black hole formation ($δ_c$), which, to a very good approximation, only depends upon the curvature of the compaction function around its peak value. We find that this generalizes to all $w\gtrsim 1/3$; for smaller $w$s the knowledge of the full shape of the compaction function is necessary. We provide analytic approximations for $δ_c$ which are accurate for $w\in [1/3,1]$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Non-linear statistics of primordial black holes from gaussian curvature perturbations

We develop the non-linear statistics of primordial black holes generated by a gaussian spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations. This is done by employing the compaction function as the main statistical variable under the constraints that: a) the over-density has a high peak at a point $\vec{x}_0$, b) the compaction function has a maximum at a smoothing scale $R$, and finally, c) the compaction function amplitude at its maximum is higher than the threshold necessary to trigger a gravitational collapse into a black hole of the initial over-density. Our calculation allows for the fact that the patches which are destined to form PBHs may have a variety of profile shapes and sizes. The predicted PBH abundances depend on the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations. For a very peaked power spectrum, our non-linear statistics, the one based on the linear over-density and the one based on the use of curvature perturbations, all predict a narrow distribution of PBH masses and comparable abundance. For broader power spectra the linear over-density statistics over-estimate the abundance of primordial black holes while the curvature-based approach under-estimates it. Additionally, for very large smoothing scales, the abundance is no longer dominated by the contribution of a mean over-density but rather by the whole statistical realisations of it.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

A universal threshold for primordial black hole formation

In this letter, we argue and show numerically that the threshold to form primordial black holes from an initial spherically symmetric perturbation is, to an excellent approximation, universal, whenever given in terms of the compaction function averaged over a sphere of radius $r_m$, where $r_m$ is the scale on which the compaction function is maximum. This can be understood as the requirement that, for a black hole to form, each shell of the averaged compaction function should have an amplitude exceeding the so-called Harada-Yoo-Kohri limit. For a radiation dominated universe we argued, supported by the numerical simulations, that this limit is $δ_c = 0.40$, which is slightly below the one quoted in the literature. Additionally, we show that the profile dependence of the threshold for the compaction function is only sensitive to its curvature at the maximum. We use these results to provide an analytic formula for the threshold amplitude of the compaction function at its maximum in terms of the normalised compaction function curvature at $r_m$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Failure of the stochastic approach to inflation beyond slow-roll

After giving a pedagogical review we clarify that the stochastic approach to inflation is generically reliable only at zeroth order in the (geometrical) slow-roll parameter $ε_1$ if and only if $ε_2^2\ll 6/ε_1$, with the notable exception of slow-roll. This is due to the failure of the stochastic $ΔN$ formalism in its standard formulation. However, by keeping the formalism in its regime of validity, we showed that, in ultra-slow-roll, the stochastic approach to inflation reproduces the power spectrum calculated from the linear theory approach.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

The abundance of primordial black holes depends on the shape of the inflationary power spectrum

In this letter, combining peak theory and the numerical analysis of gravitational collapse in the radiation dominated era, we show that the abundance of primordial blacks holes, generated by an enhancement in the inflationary power spectrum, is extremely dependent on the shape of the peak. Given the amplitude of the power spectrum, we show that the density of primordial black holes generated from a narrow peak, is exponentially smaller than in the case of a broad peak. Specifically, for a top-hat profile of the power spectrum in Fourier space, we find that for having primordial black holes comprising all of the dark matter, one would only need a power spectrum amplitude an order of magnitude smaller than suggested previously whereas in the case of a narrow peak, one would instead need a much larger power spectrum amplitude, which in many cases would invalidate the perturbative analysis of cosmological perturbations. Finally, we show that, although critical collapse gives a broad mass spectrum, the density of primordial black holes formed is dominated by masses roughly equal to the cosmological horizon mass measured at horizon crossing.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

The role of non-gaussianities in Primordial Black Hole formation

We re-analyse current single-field inflationary models related to primordial black holes formation. We do so by taking into account recent developments on the estimations of their abundances and the influence of non-gaussianities. We show that, for all of them, the gaussian approximation, which is typically used to estimate the primordial black holes abundances, fails. However, in the case in which the inflaton potential has an inflection point, the contribution of non-gaussianities is only perturbative. Finally, we infer that only models featuring an inflection point in the inflationary potential, might predict, with a very good approximation, the desired abundances by the sole use of the gaussian statistics.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

The Gross-Pitaevskii equations of a static and spherically symmetric condensate of gravitons

In this paper we consider the Dvali and Gómez assumption that the end state of a gravitational collapse is a Bose-Einstein condensate of gravitons. We then construct the two Gross-Pitaevskii equations for a static and spherically symmetric configuration of the condensate. These two equations correspond to the constrained minimisation of the gravitational Hamiltonian with respect to the redshift and the Newtonian potential, per given number of gravitons. We find that the effective geometry of the condensate is the one of a gravastar (a DeSitter star) with a sub-Planckian cosmological constant, for masses larger than the Planck scale. Thus, a condensate corresponding to a semiclassical black hole, is always quantum and weakly coupled. Finally, we obtain that the boundary of our gravastar, although it is not the location of a horizon, corresponds to the Schwarzschild radius.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Remnants in two-dimensional quantum gravity

In this work we consider a two-dimensional quantum black hole sourced by the trace anomaly of a conformal field theory. By using holography, we are able to prove that the black hole size is always proportional to the number of states inside the black hole, a result that might be interpreted as a two dimensional version of the Bekenstein entropy law. Finally, we also show that such a black hole has a minimal size (a remnant). Extrapolating this result for higher dimensions, we show that this would imply that the remnant has a size way larger than the Planck length and is, therefore, always weakly coupled.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

On primordial black holes from an inflection point

Recently, it has been claimed that inflationary models with an inflection point in the scalar potential can produce a large resonance in the power spectrum of curvature perturbation. In this paper however we show that the previous analyses are incorrect. The reason is twofold: firstly, the inflaton is over-shot from a stage of standard inflation and so deviates from the slow-roll attractor before reaching the inflection. Secondly, on the (or close to) the inflection point, the ultra-slow-roll trajectory supersede the slow-roll one and thus, the slow-roll approximations used in the literature cannot be used. We then reconsider the model and provide a recipe for how to produce nevertheless a large peak in the matter power spectrum via fine-tuning of parameters.

astro-ph.CO↗