Massive Primordial Black Holes from Hybrid Inflation as Dark Matter and the seeds of Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper proposes a hybrid inflation model that produces massive primordial black holes, potentially accounting for dark matter, galaxy seeds, and supermassive black holes, while aligning with observational constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a new inflationary scenario generating massive PBHs with a specific mass spectrum, linking inflation parameters to dark matter and galaxy formation.

Findings

PBHs peak at planetary-like masses at matter-radiation equality

Model aligns with CMB data and observational constraints

PBHs could seed supermassive black holes and explain ultra-luminous X-ray sources

Abstract

In this paper we present a new scenario where massive Primordial Black Holes (PBH) are produced from the collapse of large curvature perturbations generated during a mild waterfall phase of hybrid inflation. We determine the values of the inflaton potential parameters leading to a PBH mass spectrum peaking on planetary-like masses at matter-radiation equality and producing abundances comparable to those of Dark Matter today, while the matter power spectrum on scales probed by CMB anisotropies agrees with Planck data. These PBH could have acquired large stellar masses today, via merging, and the model passes both the constraints from CMB distortions and micro-lensing. This scenario is supported by Chandra observations of numerous BH candidates in the central region of Andromeda. Moreover, the tail of the PBH mass distribution could be responsible for the seeds of supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies, as well as for ultra-luminous X-rays sources. We find that our effective hybrid potential can originate e.g. from D-term inflation with a Fayet-Iliopoulos term of the order of the Planck scale but sub-planckian values of the inflaton field. Finally, we discuss the implications of quantum diffusion at the instability point of the potential, able to generate a swiss-cheese like structure of the Universe, eventually leading to apparent accelerated cosmic expansion.