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Catastrogenesis: DM, GWs, and PBHs from ALP string-wall networks

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arxiv 2207.07126 v2 pith:K3EBSZC7 submitted 2022-07-14 hep-ph astro-ph.CO

Catastrogenesis: DM, GWs, and PBHs from ALP string-wall networks

classification hep-ph astro-ph.CO
keywords alpsannihilationblackholespbhsstring-wallcatastrogenesisconstitute
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Axion-like particles (ALPs), a compelling candidate for dark matter (DM), are the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons of a spontaneously and explicitly broken global $U(1)$ symmetry. When the symmetry breaking happens after inflation, the ALP cosmology predicts the formation of a string-wall network which must annihilate early enough, producing gravitational waves (GWs) and primordial black holes (PBHs), as well as non-relativistic ALPs. We call this process catastrogenesis. We show that, under the generic assumption that the potential has several degenerate minima, GWs from string-wall annihilation at temperatures below 100 eV could be detected by future CMB and astrometry probes, for ALPs with mass from $10^{-16}$ to $10^{6}\,\rm eV$. In this case, structure formation could limit ALPs to constitute a fraction of the DM and the annihilation would produce mostly ``stupendously large" PBHs. For larger annihilation temperatures, ALPs can constitute $100\%$ of DM, and the annihilation could produce supermassive black holes with a mass of up to $10^9\, M_\odot$ as found at the center of large galaxies. Therefore our model could solve two mysteries, the nature of the DM and the origin of these black holes.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Cuspidal Singularities in Collapsing Domain Walls

    hep-th 2026-05 conditional novelty 7.0

    Collapsing domain walls generically form cuspidal edge and vertex singularities captured by Nambu-Goto and eikonal approximations and reproduced in field theory simulations.

  2. Gravitational Waves from Black Hole Reheating: The Scalar-Induced Component

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Accounting for the minimal mass spread of primordial black holes from gravitational collapse suppresses the Poltergeist GW background to the level of generic scalar-induced signals and reopens ultra-light PBH parameter space.

  3. Primordial Black Hole from Tensor-induced Density Fluctuation: First-order Phase Transitions and Domain Walls

    astro-ph.CO 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Tensor perturbations from first-order phase transitions and domain wall annihilation induce curvature fluctuations at second order that form primordial black holes, allowing asteroid-mass PBHs to comprise all dark mat...

  4. Primordial Black Hole from Tensor-induced Density Fluctuation: First-order Phase Transitions and Domain Walls

    astro-ph.CO 2026-05 reject novelty 5.0

    Tensor perturbations from FOPT and domain-wall sources are claimed to induce second-order scalar perturbations large enough to form primordial black holes, potentially all of the dark matter.

  5. Large-Scale Structure Probes of the Post-Inflationary Axiverse

    astro-ph.CO 2025-11 conditional novelty 5.0

    HST ultraviolet luminosity function data at z=4-10, combined with Lyman-α and CMB data, place leading constraints on subdominant post-inflationary axion dark matter via its white-noise isocurvature perturbations.

  6. Numerical simulations of density perturbation and gravitational wave production from cosmological first-order phase transition

    hep-ph 2025-02 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    3D simulations of cosmological first-order phase transitions find density perturbation spectra with k^3 and k^{-1.5} slopes and GW spectra with k^3 and k^{-2}, confirming slow transitions can produce PBHs.