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Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum

Gianmassimo Tasinato Orcid Logo

Physical Review D

Swansea University Author: Gianmassimo Tasinato Orcid Logo

Abstract

We discuss a mechanism of primordial black hole (PBH) formation that does not require specific features in the inflationary potential, revisiting previous literature. In this mechanism, a light spectator field evolves stochastically during inflation and remains subdominant during the post-inflationa...

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Published in: Physical Review D
Published: APS
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69038
first_indexed 2025-03-06T05:40:31Z
last_indexed 2025-03-06T05:40:31Z
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spelling v2 69038 2025-03-05 Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum cb754b073d1e4949c5e3db97744d3301 0000-0002-9835-4864 Gianmassimo Tasinato Gianmassimo Tasinato true false 2025-03-05 BGPS We discuss a mechanism of primordial black hole (PBH) formation that does not require specific features in the inflationary potential, revisiting previous literature. In this mechanism, a light spectator field evolves stochastically during inflation and remains subdominant during the post-inflationary era. Even though the curvature power spectrum stays small at all scales, rare perturbations of the field probe a local maximum in its potential, leading to non-Gaussian tails in the distribution of curvature fluctuations, and to copious PBHproduction. For a concrete axion-like particle (ALP) scenario we analytically determine the distribution of the compaction function for perturbations, showing that it is characterized by a heavy tail, which produces an extended PBH mass distribution. We find the ALP mass and decay constant to be correlated with the PBH mass, for instance, an ALP with a mass ma = 5.4 ×1014eV and a decay constant fa = 4.6 × 10−5MPl can lead to PBHs of mass MPBH = 1021g as the entire dark matter (DM) of the universe, and is testable in future PBH observations via lensing in the NGRST and mergers detectable in the LISA and ET gravitational wave detectors. We then extend our analysis to mixed ALP and PBH dark matter and Higgs-like spectator fields. We find that PBHs cluster strongly over all cosmological scales, clashing with CMB isocurvature bounds. We argue that this problem is shared by all PBH production from inflationary models that depend solely on large nonGaussianity without a peak in the curvature power spectrum and discuss possible remedies. Journal Article Physical Review D APS 0 0 0 0001-01-01 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2025-03-17T12:21:02.6803667 2025-03-05T16:36:04.9989213 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics Gianmassimo Tasinato 0000-0002-9835-4864 1
title Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
spellingShingle Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
Gianmassimo Tasinato
title_short Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
title_full Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
title_fullStr Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
title_full_unstemmed Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
title_sort Stochastic axionlike curvaton: Non-Gaussianity and primordial black holes without a large power spectrum
author_id_str_mv cb754b073d1e4949c5e3db97744d3301
author_id_fullname_str_mv cb754b073d1e4949c5e3db97744d3301_***_Gianmassimo Tasinato
author Gianmassimo Tasinato
author2 Gianmassimo Tasinato
format Journal article
container_title Physical Review D
institution Swansea University
publisher APS
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics
document_store_str 0
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description We discuss a mechanism of primordial black hole (PBH) formation that does not require specific features in the inflationary potential, revisiting previous literature. In this mechanism, a light spectator field evolves stochastically during inflation and remains subdominant during the post-inflationary era. Even though the curvature power spectrum stays small at all scales, rare perturbations of the field probe a local maximum in its potential, leading to non-Gaussian tails in the distribution of curvature fluctuations, and to copious PBHproduction. For a concrete axion-like particle (ALP) scenario we analytically determine the distribution of the compaction function for perturbations, showing that it is characterized by a heavy tail, which produces an extended PBH mass distribution. We find the ALP mass and decay constant to be correlated with the PBH mass, for instance, an ALP with a mass ma = 5.4 ×1014eV and a decay constant fa = 4.6 × 10−5MPl can lead to PBHs of mass MPBH = 1021g as the entire dark matter (DM) of the universe, and is testable in future PBH observations via lensing in the NGRST and mergers detectable in the LISA and ET gravitational wave detectors. We then extend our analysis to mixed ALP and PBH dark matter and Higgs-like spectator fields. We find that PBHs cluster strongly over all cosmological scales, clashing with CMB isocurvature bounds. We argue that this problem is shared by all PBH production from inflationary models that depend solely on large nonGaussianity without a peak in the curvature power spectrum and discuss possible remedies.
published_date 0001-01-01T12:21:04Z
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score 10.650872

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