arXiv subjects

Sam Young

Publications and source records attributed to Sam Young.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Influence of large local and non-local bispectra on primordial black hole abundance

Primordial black holes represent a unique probe to constrain the early universe on small scales - providing the only constraints on the primordial power spectrum on the majority of scales. However, these constraints are strongly dependent on even small amounts of non-Gaussianity, which is unconstrained on scales significantly smaller than those visible in the CMB. This paper goes beyond previous considerations to consider the effects of a bispectrum of the equilateral, orthogonal and local shapes with arbitrary magnitude upon the abundance of primordial black holes. Non-Gaussian density maps of the early universe are generated from a given bispectrum and used to place constraints on the small scale power spectrum. When small, we show that the skewness provides an accurate estimate for how the constraint depends on non-Gaussianity, independently of the shape of the bispectrum. We show that the orthogonal template of non-Gaussianity has an order of magnitude weaker effect on the constraints than the local and equilateral templates.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Signatures of non-gaussianity in the isocurvature modes of primordial black hole dark matter

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are black holes which may have formed very early on during the radiation dominated era in the early universe. We present here a method by which the large scale perturbations in the density of primordial black holes may be used to place tight constraints on non-gaussianity if PBHs account for dark matter (DM). The presence of local-type non-gaussianity is known to have a significant effect on the abundance of primordial black holes, and modal coupling from the observed CMB scale modes can significantly alter the number density of PBHs that form within different regions of the universe, which appear as DM isocurvature modes. Using the recent \emph{Planck} constraints on isocurvature perturbations, we show that PBHs are excluded as DM candidates for even very small local-type non-gaussianity, $|f_{NL}|\approx0.001$ and remarkably the constraint on $g_{NL}$ is almost as strong. Even small non-gaussianity is excluded if DM is composed of PBHs. If local non-Gaussianity is ever detected on CMB scales, the constraints on the fraction of the universe collapsing into PBHs (which are massive enough to have not yet evaporated) will become much tighter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

The long-short wavelength mode coupling tightens primordial black hole constraints

The effects of non-gaussianity on the constraints on the primordial curvature perturbation power spectrum from primordial black holes (PBHs) are considered. We extend previous analyses to include the effects of coupling between the modes of the horizon scale at the time the PBH forms and super-horizon modes. We consider terms of up to third order in the Gaussian perturbation. For the weakest constraints on the abundance of PBHs in the early universe (corresponding to a fractional energy density of PBHs of $10^{-5}$ at the time of formation), in the case of gaussian perturbations, constraints on the power spectrum are $\mathcal{P}_ζ<0.05$ but can significantly tighter when even a small amount of non-gaussianity is considered, to $\mathcal{P}_ζ<0.01$, and become approximately $\mathcal{P}_ζ<0.003$ in more special cases. Surprisingly, even when there is negative skew (which naively would suggest fewer areas of high density, leading to weaker constraints), we find that the constraints on the power spectrum become tighter than the purely gaussian case - in strong contrast with previous results. We find that the constraints are highly sensitive to both the non-gaussianity parameters as well as the amplitude of super-horizon perturbations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Calculating the mass spectrum of primordial black holes

We reinspect the calculation for the mass fraction of primordial black holes (PBHs) which are formed from primordial perturbations, finding that performing the calculation using the comoving curvature perturbation $\mathcal{R}_{c}$ in the standard way vastly overestimates the number of PBHs, by many orders of magnitude. This is because PBHs form shortly after horizon entry, meaning modes significantly larger than the PBH are unobservable and should not affect whether a PBH forms or not - this important effect is not taken into account by smoothing the distribution in the standard fashion. We discuss alternative methods and argue that the density contrast, $Δ$, should be used instead as super-horizon modes are damped by a factor $k^{2}$. We make a comparison between using a Press-Schechter approach and peaks theory, finding that the two are in close agreement in the region of interest. We also investigate the effect of varying the spectral index, and the running of the spectral index, on the abundance of primordial black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Primordial black holes in non-Gaussian regimes

Primordial black holes (PBHs) can form in the early Universe from the collapse of rare, large density fluctuations. They have never been observed, but this fact is enough to constrain the amplitude of fluctuations on very small scales which cannot be otherwise probed. Because PBHs form only in very rare large fluctuations, the number of PBHs formed is extremely sensitive to changes in the shape of the tail of the fluctuation distribution - which depends on the amount of non-Gaussianity present. We first study how local non-Gaussianity of arbitrary size up to fifth order affects the abundance and constraints from PBHs, finding that they depend strongly on even small amounts of non-Gaussianity and the upper bound on the allowed amplitude of the power spectrum can vary by several orders of magnitude. The sign of the non-linearity parameters (f_{NL}, g_{NL}, etc) are particularly important. We also study the abundance and constraints from PBHs in the curvaton scenario, in which case the complete non-linear probability distribution is known, and find that truncating to any given order (i.e. to order f_{NL} or g_{NL}, etc) does not give accurate results.

astro-ph.CO↗