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Critical collapse and the primordial black hole initial mass function

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arxiv astro-ph/9901268 v2 pith:KRNT2OHZ submitted 1999-01-20 astro-ph gr-qc

classification astro-phgr-qc
keywords masspbhshorizonformfunctioninitialspectrumformed
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

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abstract

It has normally been assumed that primordial black holes (PBHs) always form with mass approximately equal to the mass contained within the horizon at that time. Recent work studying the application of critical phenomena in gravitational collapse to PBH formation has shown that in fact, at a fixed time, PBHs with a range of masses are formed. When calculating the PBH initial mass function it is usually assumed that all PBHs form at the same horizon mass. It is not clear, however, that it is consistent to consider the spread in the mass of PBHs formed at a single horizon mass, whilst neglecting the range of horizon masses at which PBHs can form. We use the excursion set formalism to compute the PBH initial mass function, allowing for PBH formation at a range of horizon masses, for two forms of the density perturbation spectrum. First we examine power-law spectra with $n>1$, where PBHs form on small scales. We find that, in the limit where the number of PBHs formed is small enough to satisfy the observational constraints on their initial abundance, the mass function approaches that found by Niemeyer and Jedamzik under the assumption that all PBHs form at a single horizon mass. Second, we consider a flat perturbation spectrum with a spike at a scale corresponding to horizon mass $\sim 0.5 M_{\odot}$, and compare the resulting PBH mass function with that of the MACHOs (MAssive Compact Halo Objects) detected by microlensing observations. The predicted mass spectrum appears significantly wider than the steeply-falling spectrum found observationally.

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Cited by 11 Pith papers

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

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

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0 of 10

    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.

  2. Unveiling horizons in quantum critical collapse

    gr-qc 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 7.0 of 10

    Semiclassical quantum corrections in critical collapse yield a finite mass gap and transition from classical Type II to quantum Type I behavior, providing a quantum enforcement of weak cosmic censorship.

  3. The cosmic history of Primordial Black Hole accretion and its uncertainties

    astro-ph.CO 2024-12 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    Accounting for radiative feedback and formation-time effects, accretion grows primordial black holes by at most a few percent in the radiation era and negligibly in the baryonic Park-Ricotti model, while the Bondi mod...

  4. Reconstruction of Primordial Power Spectrum from Gravitational Waves of High-Redshift Black Hole Binaries

    astro-ph.CO 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Gradient-descent inversion of redshifted BBH mass distributions recovers the PBH mass function and, via regularized Press-Schechter, a candidate O(10^{-2}) bump in the small-scale primordial power spectrum.

  5. Self-similar collapse with elasticity

    gr-qc 2025-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Continuous self-similar collapse solutions exist for a scale-invariant elastic matter model, and regularity imposes bounds on the elasticity parameters.

  6. Quantum Critical Collapse Abhors a Naked Singularity

    gr-qc 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    One-loop quantum vacuum polarization in Einstein-scalar critical collapse generates a horizon and finite mass gap, enforcing black hole formation even under arbitrary fine-tuning.

  7. Primordial black holes in excursion set theory: Formation probabilities, mass functions, and window functions

    astro-ph.CO 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    In excursion set theory with colored noises, the low-mass tail of the PBH mass function differs from Carr's formula because correlated noises end the degeneracy of formation probabilities, though Carr's formula remain...

  8. Primordial black holes through preheating instabilities in $\alpha$-attractor models

    astro-ph.CO 2025-05 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    In alpha-attractor models, preheating self-resonance can form primordial black holes of 10^2 to 10^7 g, with the Khlopov-Polnarev collapse formalism staying viable and the Press-Schechter formalism overproducing.

  9. Primordial Black Hole Formation from the Upward Step Model: Avoiding Overproduction

    astro-ph.CO 2024-12 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    In upward-step inflation, a non-Gaussian cutoff in curvature perturbations sharply suppresses type-I primordial black hole abundance for h above about 5.9, easing PTA overproduction constraints.

  10. Constraints on Primordial Black Holes

    astro-ph.CO 2020-02 accept novelty 4.0 of 10

    Updated compilation shows PBHs are tightly constrained across 55 orders of magnitude in mass, ruling out dominant dark matter contributions except in narrow windows, with many limits carrying observational uncertainties.

  11. Critical Phenomena in Gravitational Collapse

    gr-qc 2025-07 unverdicted novelty 3.0 of 10

    An authoritative review of critical collapse, updated with results on nonspherical vacuum collapse and rigorous PDE blowup.

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