The basics of primordial black hole formation and abundance estimation

TL;DR

This paper reviews the fundamental models and tools for understanding primordial black hole formation, providing an intuitive overview and demonstrating mass spectrum calculations for specific curvature spectra.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive review of PBH formation models and presents a combined approach using advanced tools for more accurate abundance estimation.

Findings

Derived PBH mass spectrum for monochromatic curvature power spectrum

Clarified the use of cosmological long-wavelength solutions and peak theory in PBH analysis

Provided an intuitive understanding through the three-zone model

Abstract

This paper is a biased review of primordial black hole (PBH) formation and abundance estimation. We first review the three-zone model for PBH formation to help an intuitive understanding of the PBH formation process. Then, for more accurate analyses, we introduce necessary tools such as cosmological long-wavelength solutions, the definition of the mass and compaction function in a spherically symmetric spacetime and peak theory. Combining all these tools, we calculate the PBH mass spectrum for the case of the monochromatic curvature power spectrum as a demonstration.