Primordial Black Holes in Phantom Cosmology

We investigate the effects of accretion of phantom energy onto primordial black holes. Since Hawking radiation and phantom energy accretion contribute to a {\it decrease} of the mass of the black hole, the primordial black hole that would be expected to decay now due to the Hawking process would decay {\it earlier} due to the inclusion of the phantom energy. Equivalently, to have the primordial black hole decay now it would have to be more massive initially. We find that the effect of the phantom energy is substantial and the black holes decaying now would be {\it much} more massive -- over 10 orders of magnitude! This effect will be relevant for determining the time of production and hence the number of evaporating black holes expected in a universe accelerating due to phantom energy.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Gen. Relativ. Gravi

Star Clusters with Primordial Binaries: III. Dynamical Interaction between Binaries and an Intermediate Mass Black Hole

We present the first study of the dynamical evolution of an isolated star cluster that combines a significant population of primordial binaries with the presence of a central black hole. We use equal-mass direct N-body simulations, with N ranging from 4096 to 16384 and a primordial binary ratio of 0-10%; the black hole mass is about one percent of the total mass of the cluster. The evolution of the binary population is strongly influenced by the presence of the black hole, which gives the cluster a large core with a central density cusp. Starting from a variety of initial conditions (Plummer and King models), we first encounter a phase, that last approximately 10 half-mass relaxation times, in which binaries are disrupted faster compared to analogous simulations without a black hole. Subsequently, however, binary disruption slows down significantly, due to the large core size. The dynamical interplay between the primordial binaries and the black hole thus introduces new features with respect to the scenarios investigated so far, where the influence of the black hole and of the binaries have been considered separately. A large core to half mass radius ratio appears to be a promising indirect evidence for the presence of a intermediate-mass black hole in old globular clusters.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Primordial black hole evolution in two-fluid cosmology

Several processes in the early universe might lead to the formation of primordial black holes with different masses. These black holes would interact with the cosmic plasma through accretion and emission processes. Such interactions might have affected the dynamics of the universe and generated a considerable amount of entropy. In this paper we investigate the effects of the presence of primordial black holes on the evolution of the early universe. We adopt a two-fluid cosmological model with radiation and a primordial black hole gas. The latter is modelled with different initial mass functions taking into account the available constraints over the initial primordial black hole abundances. We find that certain populations with narrow initial mass functions are capable to produce significant changes in the scale factor and the entropy.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Modified to match the published versio

Primordial Gas Collapse in The Presence of Radiation: Direct Collapse Black Hole or Population III star?

The first billion years in the evolution of the Universe mark the formation of the first stars, black holes and galaxies. The radiation from the first galaxies plays an important role in determining the final state of primordial gas collapsing in a neighboring halo. This is due to the fact that the primary coolant for primordial gas is molecular hydrogen, which can be dissociated into atomic hydrogen by Lyman-Werner photons in the energy range $11.2 - 13.6$~eV. While cooling by molecular hydrogen leads to Pop. III star formation, cooling by atomic hydrogen can lead to the formation of a supermassive star (or quasi-star) which results in the formation of a massive $10^{4-5} M_\odot$ black hole, or a direct collapse black hole. The spectrum of this radiation field is critical in order to determine whether a primordial gas cloud forms a Pop. III star or a very massive black hole. We will in the following explore this scenario and discuss how the radiation spectrum influences the outcome of the collapse.Comment: Preprint~of~a~review volume chapter to be published in Latif, M., \& Schleicher, D.R.G., "Primordial Gas Collapse in The Presence of Radiation: Direct Collapse Black Hole or Population III star?", Formation of the First Black Holes, 2018 \textcopyright Copyright World Scientific Publishing Company, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/1065

Brans-Dicke Theory and primordial black holes in Early Matter-Dominated Era

We show that primordial black holes can be formed in the matter-dominated era with gravity described by the Brans-Dicke theory. Considering an early matter-dominated era between inflation and reheating, we found that the primordial black holes formed during that era evaporate at a quicker than those of early radiation-dominated era. Thus, in comparison with latter case, less number of primordial black holes could exist today. Again the constraints on primordial black hole formation tend towards the larger value than their radiation-dominated era counterparts indicating a significant enhancement in the formation of primordial black holes during the matter-dominaed era.Comment: 9 page