Formation of primordial black holes from non-Gaussian perturbations produced in a waterfall transition

We consider the process of primordial black hole (PBH) formation originated from primordial curvature perturbations produced during waterfall transition (with tachyonic instability), at the end of hybrid inflation. It is known that in such inflation models, rather large values of curvature perturbation amplitudes can be reached, which can potentially cause a significant PBH production in the early Universe. The probability distributions of density perturbation amplitudes in this case can be strongly non-Gaussian, which requires a special treatment. We calculated PBH abundances and PBH mass spectra for the model, and analyzed their dependence on model parameters. We obtained the constraints on the parameters of the inflationary potential, using the available limits on $\beta_{PBH}$.Comment: v2: 11 pages, 4 figures. Several comments and references added. Version accepted by Phys. Rev.

About possible contribution of intrinsic charm component to inclusive spectra of charmed mesons

We calculate differential energy spectra ($x_F$-distributions) of charmed particles produced in proton-nucleus collisions, assuming the existence of intrinsic heavy quark components in the proton wave function. For the calculation, the recently proposed factorization scheme is used, based on the Color Glass Condensate theory and specially suited for predictions of a production of particles with large rapidities. It is argued that the intrinsic charm component can, if it exists, dominate in a sum of two components, intrinsic + extrinsic, of the inclusive spectrum of charmed particles produced in proton-nucleus collisions at high energies, in the region of medium $x_F$, $0.15 < x_F < 0.7$, and can give noticeable contribution to atmospheric fluxes of prompt muons and neutrinos.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Version published in J. Phys. G

Searching for Very-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Bursts from Evaporating Primordial Black Holes

Temporal and energy characteristics of the very-high-energy gamma-ray bursts from evaporating primordial black holes have been calculated by assuming that the photospheric and chromospheric effects are negligible. The technique of searching for such bursts on shower arrays is described. We show that the burst time profile and the array dead time should be taken into account to interpret experimental data. Based on data from the Andyrchy array of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory (Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences), we have obtained an upper limit on the number density of evaporating primordial black holes in a local region of space with a scale size of ~10^{-3} pc. Comparison with the results of previous experiments is made.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure