The QCD phase transition behind a PBH origin of LIGO/Virgo events?

TL;DR

This paper examines whether the QCD phase transition can explain the origin of LIGO/Virgo black hole mergers via primordial black holes, but finds the scenario unlikely without fine-tuning, though future detections could provide insights.

Contribution

The study reevaluates the PBH formation scenario linked to the QCD phase transition, incorporating particle annihilation effects and observational constraints, and assesses its viability.

Findings

The scenario is generally not viable without ad hoc modifications.

Observational constraints strongly limit the PBH mass function shaped by the QCD transition.

Future detections of sub-solar PBH binaries could test the cosmological origin of SMBHs.

Abstract

The best-motivated scenario for a sizable primordial black hole (PBH) contribution to the LIGO/Virgo binary black hole mergers invokes the QCD phase transition, which naturally enhances the probability to form PBH with masses of stellar scale. We reconsider the expected mass function associated not only to the QCD phase transition proper, but also the following particle antiparticle annihilation processes, and analyse the constraints on this scenario from a number of observations: The specific pattern in cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies induced by accretion onto PBHs, CMB spectral distortions, gravitational wave searches, and direct counts of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at high redshift. We find that the scenario is not viable, unless an ad hoc mass evolution for the PBH mass function and a cutoff in power-spectrum very close to the QCD scale are introduced by hand. Despite these negative results, we note that a future detection of coalescing binaries involving sub-solar PBHs has the potential to check the cosmological origin of SMBHs at the $e^\pm$ annihilation epoch, if indeed the PBH mass function is shaped by the changes to the equation of state driven by the thermal history of the universe.