Comment on "Formation of primordial black holes by cosmic strings"

TL;DR

This paper critically re-evaluates earlier claims about Turok-strings, correcting misconceptions and significantly adjusting the estimated probability of string collapse, thereby refining our understanding of primordial black hole formation.

Contribution

It provides a corrected analysis of Turok-strings and revises the collapse probability estimates, challenging previous conclusions in the field.

Findings

Previous conclusions about Turok-strings are generally incorrect.

The probability of string collapse is underestimated by a factor of about 1000.

Refined estimates impact models of primordial black hole formation.

Abstract

We show that in a pioneering paper by Polnarev and Zembowicz, some conclusions concerning the characteristics of the Turok-strings are generally not correct. In addition we show that the probability of string collapse given there, is off by a large prefactor (~1000).