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Primordial black holes from single-field inflation: a fine-tuning audit

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arxiv 2304.01997 v2 pith:WMRDTJ2W submitted 2023-04-04 astro-ph.CO

classification astro-ph.CO
keywords tuningfine-tuningmodelobservationsorderpotentialspowerprimordial
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

All single-field inflationary models invoke varying degrees of tuning in order to account for cosmological observations. Mechanisms that generate primordial black holes (PBHs) from enhancement of primordial power at small scales posit inflationary potentials that transiently break scale invariance and possibly adiabaticity over a range of modes. This requires additional tuning on top of that required to account for observations at scales probed by cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. In this paper we study the parametric dependence of various single-field models of inflation that enhance power at small scales and quantify the degree to which coefficients in the model construction have to be tuned in order for certain observables to lie within specified ranges. We find significant tuning: changing the parameters of the potentials by between one part in a hundred and one part in $10^8$ (depending on the model) is enough to change the power spectrum peak amplitude by an order one factor. The fine-tuning of the PBH abundance is larger still by 1-2 orders of magnitude. We highlight the challenges imposed by this tuning on any given model construction. Furthermore, polynomial potentials appear to require significant additional fine-tuning to also match the CMB observations.

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Forward citations

Cited by 8 Pith papers

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

  1. Spectator Axions in String Inflation and Primordial Black Holes

    hep-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In Fibre Inflation, spectator axions with f≲0.1 M_Pl leave the PBH power spectrum unchanged, while for f≳0.1 M_Pl and exponentially small non-perturbative prefactors they can raise P_R from 1.9e-4 to 3.5e-3 and enable...

  2. Superhorizon curvature perturbations in hybrid inflation revisited

    astro-ph.CO 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    Hybrid inflation's waterfall tachyonic instability grows isocurvature modes that convert to curvature perturbations at the field-space turn, yielding a k^{3}-peaked spectrum with always-positive f_NL that enhances PBH...

  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 of 10

    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.

  4. In-depth analysis of the clustering of dark matter particles around primordial black holes. Part II. Analytical prescriptions for spikes

    astro-ph.HE 2025-11 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A 'soft' analytical approximation reproduces PBH minispike densities and annihilation rates to ~±15%, and shows that a discovered sub-solar PBH population would strongly constrain s-wave WIMP dark matter.

  5. Complementary Probes of Warped Extra Dimension: Colliders, Gravitational Waves and Primordial Black Holes from Phase Transitions

    hep-ph 2025-02 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In Randall-Sundrum warped extra dimension models, the supercooled radion phase transition can form primordial black holes that account for all of dark matter for IR scales 10 TeV to 10^4 TeV, with correlated gravitati...

  6. Primordial black hole dark matter from ultra-slow-roll inflation in Horndeski gravity

    gr-qc 2025-12 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    A kinetic cubic Horndeski coupling creates an ultra-slow-roll phase that amplifies curvature perturbations enough to produce asteroid-mass primordial black holes, potentially 90% of dark matter.

  7. Are Primordial Black Holes Truly Fine-Tuned?

    astro-ph.CO 2025-12 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Using a normalized sensitivity measure γ=c/c̄, the authors find γ≈1 for three single-field ultra-slow-roll inflation models and conclude PBH production is not technically unnatural.

  8. A scaling invariance of the perturbations in $k$-inflation models

    gr-qc 2025-02 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    A scaling invariance of k-inflation background equations allows parameter redefinitions that normalize the curvature perturbation spectrum at the CMB pivot scale without altering its shape.

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