Primordial black holes, zero-point energy and the CMB: The cosmic connection

TL;DR

This paper explores a cosmological model where primordial black holes and the CMB interact with decaying vacuum energy, potentially solving the cosmological constant problem by linking black hole properties to vacuum energy density.

Contribution

It introduces a scenario where vacuum energy decays into matter via PBHs absorbing vacuum modes, providing a natural cutoff that explains the observed vacuum energy density.

Findings

PBHs confined by local equilibrium with CMB

Vacuum energy modes absorbed by PBHs up to their radius

Resulting vacuum energy density matches observations

Abstract

We propose a possible resolution to the cosmological constant problem through a scenario in which the universe is composed of three components: matter, radiation (CMB) and vacuum energy such that vacuum energy is not constant and is decaying into the matter component. Matter in this scenario consists of baryonic matter and primordial black holes (PBHs) as the dark matter. Local equilibrium condition between PBHs and CMB confines the mass and the radius of PBHs. The mechanism accounting for the decaying process is nothing but the absorption of vacuum energy modes by the PBHs up to a wavelength of the order of their radius. Acting as a natural cut-off on the wavelength of vacuum energy modes, this leads to the observed value for the vacuum energy density.