Primordial Black Holes from Kinetic Preheating

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Adshead, Peter, Currens, Eve, Giblin Jr, John T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Adshead, Peter
Currens, Eve
Giblin Jr, John T.
author_facet Adshead, Peter
Currens, Eve
Giblin Jr, John T.
contents We demonstrate that violent kinetic preheating following inflation can lead to the formation of black holes in the early Universe. In $α$-attractor models with derivative inflaton couplings, nonlinear amplification of field fluctuations drives large spacetime curvature and gravitational collapse shortly after inflation ends. Using fully general-relativistic lattice simulations, we find that these dynamics produce black holes with masses of order tens of grams at sub-horizon scales, without requiring large primordial curvature perturbations. Although such micro-black holes evaporate rapidly via Hawking radiation, their formation modifies the post-inflationary equation of state and their evaporation can successfully reheat the Universe before Big Bang nucleosynthesis. These results identify kinetic preheating as a new, efficient channel for black-hole production and establish a direct connection between inflationary symmetries and strong-gravity phenomena at reheating.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_02059
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Primordial Black Holes from Kinetic Preheating
Adshead, Peter
Currens, Eve
Giblin Jr, John T.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We demonstrate that violent kinetic preheating following inflation can lead to the formation of black holes in the early Universe. In $α$-attractor models with derivative inflaton couplings, nonlinear amplification of field fluctuations drives large spacetime curvature and gravitational collapse shortly after inflation ends. Using fully general-relativistic lattice simulations, we find that these dynamics produce black holes with masses of order tens of grams at sub-horizon scales, without requiring large primordial curvature perturbations. Although such micro-black holes evaporate rapidly via Hawking radiation, their formation modifies the post-inflationary equation of state and their evaporation can successfully reheat the Universe before Big Bang nucleosynthesis. These results identify kinetic preheating as a new, efficient channel for black-hole production and establish a direct connection between inflationary symmetries and strong-gravity phenomena at reheating.
title Primordial Black Holes from Kinetic Preheating
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02059