Probing first-order electroweak phase transition via primordial black holes in the effective field theory

TL;DR

This paper explores how primordial black holes formed during a first-order electroweak phase transition could be detected through microlensing, offering a new way to probe early universe physics and the nature of the electroweak phase transition.

Contribution

It introduces a framework using nearly aligned Higgs effective field theory to connect electroweak phase transition dynamics with primordial black hole production and their potential observability.

Findings

Primordial black holes of about 10^-5 solar masses can be produced during the electroweak phase transition.

Current and future microlensing surveys can potentially detect these black holes.

Complementary detection methods include gravitational waves and collider experiments.

Abstract

We investigate production of primordial black holes from first-order electroweak phase transition in the framework of the nearly aligned Higgs effective field theory, in which non-decoupling quantum effects are properly described. Since the mass of such primordial black holes is evaluated to be about $10^{-5}$ of the solar mass, current and future microlensing observations such as Subaru HSC, OGLE, PRIME and Roman Space Telescope may be able to probe the electroweak phase transition. We study parameter regions where primordial black holes can be produced by the first-order electroweak phase transition, and explore their detectability at these observations. Complementarity of primordial black hole observations, gravitational wave observations and collider experiments is also discussed for testing the nature of the electroweak phase transition.