Black hole formation in the Friedmann universe: Formulation and computation in numerical relativity

TL;DR

This paper develops a formulation and numerical method in general relativity to simulate black hole formation in the early universe, revealing the importance of initial conditions and density profiles.

Contribution

It introduces a new formalism for Einstein equations under constant mean curvature slicing, enabling both analytic and numerical studies of primordial black hole formation.

Findings

Black hole formation requires non-linear initial metric perturbations.

Threshold amplitude for black hole formation depends on the density profile.

Spatial correlation of density fluctuations affects primordial black hole formation.

Abstract

We study formation of black holes in the Friedmann universe. We present a formulation of the Einstein equations under the constant mean curvature time-slicing condition. Our formalism not only gives us the analytic solution of the perturbation equations for non-linear density and metric fluctuations on superhorizon scales, but also allows us to carry out a numerical relativity simulation for black hole formation after the scale of the density fluctuations is well within the Hubble horizon scale. We perform a numerical simulation of spherically symmetric black hole formation in the radiation-dominated, spatially flat background universe for a realistic initial condition supplied from the analytic solution. It is found that the initial metric perturbation has to be non-linear (the maximum value of 3D conformal factor $\psi_0$ at $t=0$ should be larger than $\sim 1.4$) for a black hole to be formed, but the threshold amplitude for black hole formation and the final black hole mass considerably depend on the initial density (or metric) profile of the perturbation: The threshold value of $\psi_0$ at $t=0$ for formation of a black hole is smaller for a high density peak surrounded by a low density region than for that surrounded by the average density region of the flat universe. This suggests that it is necessary to take into account the spatial correlation of density fluctuations in the study of primordial black hole formation.