Dark Matter from Eternity

TL;DR

This paper explores a novel origin of dark matter linked to eternal inflation, suggesting primordial black holes formed from regions that never reheated and predicting observable gravitational wave signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism connecting eternal inflation to primordial black hole dark matter, with specific predictions for gravitational wave backgrounds.

Findings

Primordial black holes can originate from eternally inflating regions.

The model predicts a broad curvature perturbation spectrum.

A flat stochastic gravitational wave background at $\, ext{Omega}_ ext{GW} h^2 \,\simeq 10^{-10}$ is expected.

Abstract

We propose that the totality of dark matter in the universe might ascribe its origin to one of the key properties of cosmological inflation, that it may be eternal: regions that at the end of the primordial accelerated expansion of the universe never reheated, but keep eternally inflating, manifest themselves as primordial black holes in our observable universe. This mechanism can provide a primordial black hole abundance which is larger than the standard one due to the gravitational collapse of sizeable overdensities in the radiation phase. It also predicts a broad spectrum for the curvature perturbation and a flat stochastic gravitational wave background at a level of $\Omega_\text{GW} h^2 \simeq 10^{-10}$ up to the mHz.