SciPost Submission Page
Ruling out QCD phase transition as a PBH origin of LIGO/Virgo events
by Joaquim Iguaz Juan
This Submission thread is now published as
Submission summary
| Ontological classification |
|---|
| Academic field: |
Physics |
| Specialties: |
- Gravitation, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
|
| Approach: |
Phenomenological |
Abstract
The best-motivated scenario for a sizable primordial black hole (PBH) contribution to the LIGO/Virgo binary black hole mergers invokes the QCD phase transition, which naturally enhances the probability to form PBH with masses of stellar scale. We reconsider the expected mass function assuming a CMB-like primordial spectrum and associated not only to the QCD phase transition proper, but also the e+e− annihilation process, and analyze the constraints on this scenario from a number of observations. We find that the scenario is not viable, unless an ad hoc mass evolution for the PBH mass function and a cutoff in power-spectrum very close to the QCD scale are introduced by hand.
