Showing 1–20 of 88 results
Jérémy Auffinger, Alexandre Arbey
We present the public code \texttt{BlackHawk}, a powerful tool to compute the evaporation of any distribution of Schwarzschild and Kerr Black Holes and the emission spectra of Hawking radiation.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger, Joseph Silk
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are appealing candidates for dark matter in the universe but are severely constrained by theoretical and observational constraints. We will focus on the Hawking evaporation limits extended to Kerr black holes. In particular, we will discuss the possibility to distinguish between black holes of primordial and of stellar origins based on the Thorne limit on their spin. We will also review the isotropic extragalactic gamma ray background constraints and show that the ``window'' in which PBHs can constitute all of the dark matter depends strongly on the PBH spin. Finally, we will consider the possibility that the so-called Planet 9 is a primordial black hole.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger
Concordant evidence points towards the existence of a ninth planet in the Solar System at more than $400\,$AU from the Sun. In particular, trans-Neptunian object orbits are perturbed by the presence of a putative gravitational source. Since this planet has not yet been observationally found with conventional telescope research, it has been argued that it could be a dark compact object, namely a black hole of probably primordial origin. Within this assumption, we discuss the possibility of detecting Planet 9 via a sub-relativistic spacecraft fly-by and the measure of its Hawking radiation in the radio band and conclude that it is too faint compared to the CMB. We thus present other perspectives with rather a satellite mission and conclude that smaller black holes would give much more interesting signals. We emphasize the importance of the study of such Hawking radiation laboratories in the Solar System.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger, Marc Geiller, Etera R. Livine, Francesco Sartini
In the companion paper [Phys. Rev. D 103 (2021) 10, [2101.02951]] we have derived the short-ranged potentials for the Teukolsky equations for massless spins $(0,1/2,1,2)$ in general spherically-symmetric and static metrics. Here we apply these results to numerically compute the Hawking radiation spectra of such particles emitted by black holes (BHs) in three different ansatz: charged BHs, higher-dimensional BHs, and polymerized BHs arising from models of quantum gravity. In order to ensure the robustness of our numerical procedure, we show that it agrees with newly derived analytic formulas for the cross-sections in the high and low energy limits. We show how the short-ranged potentials and precise Hawking radiation rates can be used inside the code $\texttt{BlackHawk}$ to predict future primordial BH evaporation signals for a very wide class of BH solutions, including the promising regular BH solutions derived from loop quantum gravity. In particular, we derive the first Hawking radiation constraints on polymerized BHs from AMEGO. We prove that the mass window $10^{16}-10^{18}\,$g for all dark matter into primordial BHs can be reopened with high values of the polymerization parameter, which encodes the typical scale and strength of quantum gravity corrections.
Alexandre Arbey, Julien Lesgourgues, Pierre Salati
The nature of the dark matter that binds galaxies remains an open question. The favored candidate has been so far the neutralino. This massive species with evanescent interactions is now in difficulty. It would actually collapse in dense clumps and would therefore play havoc with the matter it is supposed to shepherd. We focus here on a massive and non-interacting charged scalar field as an alternate option to the astronomical missing mass. We investigate the classical solutions that describe the Bose condensate of such a field in gravitational interaction with matter. This simplistic model accounts quite well for the dark matter inside low-luminosity spirals whereas the agreement lessens for the brightest objects where baryons dominate. A scalar mass m=0.4 to 1.6 10^{-23} eV is derived when both high and low-luminosity spirals are fitted at the same time. Comparison with astronomical observations is made quantitative through a chi-squared analysis. We conclude that scalar fields offer a promising direction worth being explored.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger, Joseph Silk
Primordial black holes can represent all or most of the dark matter in the window $10^{17}-10^{22}\,$g. Here we present an extension of the constraints on PBHs of masses $10^{13}-10^{18}\,$g arising from the isotropic diffuse gamma ray background. Primordial black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation that should not exceed the observed background. Generalizing from monochromatic distributions of Schwarzschild black holes to extended mass functions of Kerr rotating black holes, we show that the lower part of this mass window can be closed for near-extremal black holes.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger, Joseph Silk
We evaluate abundance anomalies generated in patches of the universe where the baryon-to-photon ratio was locally enhanced by possibly many orders of magnitude in the range $η= 10^{-10} - 10^{-1}$. Our study is motivated by the possible survival of rare dense regions in the early universe, the most extreme of which, above a critical threshold, collapsed to form primordial black holes. If this occurred, one may expect there to also be a significant population of early-forming stars that formed in similar but subthreshold patches. We derive a range of element abundance signatures by performing BBN simulations at high values of the baryon-to-photon ratio that may be detectable in any surviving first generation stars of around a solar mass. Our predictions apply to metal-poor galactic halo stars, to old globular star clusters and to dwarf galaxies, and we compare with observations in each of these cases.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger
We describe BlackHawk, a public C program for calculating the Hawking evaporation spectra of any black hole distribution. This program allows the users to compute the primary and secondary spectra of stable or long-lived particles generated by Hawking radiation of the distribution of black holes, and to study their evolution in time. The physics of Hawking radiation is presented, and the capabilities, features and usage of BlackHawk are described here under the form of a manual. This is the BlackHawk v2.0 manual, which is available on the BlackHawk webpage http://blackhawk.hepforge.org/. A brief release note summarizing the new aspects of BlackHawk v2.0 as well as illustrating examples can be found in https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.02737.
Jérémy Auffinger, Alexandre Arbey, Pearl Sandick, Barmak Shams Es Haghi, Kuver Sinha
Light black holes could have formed in the very early universe through the collapse of large primordial density fluctuations. These primordial black holes (PBHs), if light enough, would have evaporated by now because of the emission of Hawking radiation; thus they could not represent a sizable fraction of dark matter today. However, they could have left imprints in the early cosmological epochs. We will discuss the impact of massless graviton emission by (rotating) PBHs before the onset of big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and conclude that this contribution to dark radiation is constrained by the cosmic microwave background (CMB) (with the future CMB Stage 4) and BBN in the lighter portion of the PBH mass range, under the hypothesis that they dominated the energy density of the universe.
Alexandre Arbey, Jean-François Coupechoux
Observations of gravitational waves provide new opportunities to study our Universe. In particular, mergers of stellar black holes are the main targets of the current gravitational wave experiments. In order to make accurate predictions, it is however necessary to simulate the mergers in numerical general relativity, which requires high performance computing. While scaling relations are used to rescale simulations for very massive black holes, primordial black holes have specific properties which can invalidate the rescaling. Similarly black holes in theories beyond Einstein's relativity can have different scaling properties. In this article, we consider scaling relations for the most general cases of primordial black holes, such as charged and spinned black holes, and study the effects of the cosmological expansion and of Hawking evaporation. We also consider more exotic black hole models and derive the corresponding scaling relations, which can be compared to the observations in order to identify the underlying black hole model and can be used to rescale the numerical simulations of exotic black hole mergers.
Alexandre Arbey, Marco Battaglia, Farvah Mahmoudi
The search for heavy Higgs bosons is an essential step in the exploration of the Higgs sector and in probing the Supersymmetric parameter space. This paper discusses the constraints on the M(A) and tan beta parameters derived from the bounds on the different decay channels of the neutral H and A bosons accessible at the LHC, in the framework of the phenomenological MSSM. The implications from the present LHC results and the expected sensitivity of the 14 TeV data are discussed in terms of the coverage of the [M(A) - tan beta] plane. New channels becoming important at 13 and 14 TeV for low values of tan beta are characterised in terms of their kinematics and the reconstruction strategies. The effect of QCD systematics, SUSY loop effects and decays into pairs of SUSY particles on these constraints are discussed in details.
Alexandre Arbey
The standard model of cosmology relies on the existence of two components, "dark matter" and "dark energy", which dominate the expansion of the Universe. There is no direct proof of their existence, and their nature is still unknown. Many alternative models suggest other cosmological scenarios, and in particular the dark fluid model replace the dark matter and dark energy components by a unique dark component able to mimic the behaviour of both components. The current cosmological constraints on the unifying dark fluid model is discussed, and a dark fluid model based on a complex scalar field is presented. Finally the consequences of quantum corrections on the scalar field potential are investigated.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger, Joseph Silk
Near extremal Kerr black holes are subject to the Thorne limit $a<a^*_{\rm lim}=0.998$ in the case of thin disc accretion, or some generalized version of this in other disc geometries. However any limit that differs from the thermodynamics limit $a^* < 1$ can in principle be evaded in other astrophysical configurations, and in particular if the near extremal black holes are primordial and subject to evaporation by Hawking radiation only. We derive the lower mass limit above which Hawking radiation is slow enough so that a primordial black hole with a spin initially above some generalized Thorne limit can still be above this limit today. Thus, we point out that the observation of Kerr black holes with extremely high spin should be a hint of either exotic astrophysical mechanisms or primordial origin.
Alexandre Arbey, Marco Battaglia, Laura Covi, Jasper Hasenkamp, Farvah Mahmoudi
Gravitino Dark Matter represents a compelling scenario in Supersymmetry, which brings together a variety of data from cosmology and collider physics. We discuss the constraints obtained from the LHC on supersymmetric models with gravitino dark matter and neutralino NLSP, which is the case most difficult to disentangle at colliders from a neutralino LSP forming DM. The phenomenological SUSY model with 19+1 free parameters is adopted. Results are obtained from broad scans of the phase space of these uncorrelated parameters. The relation between gravitino mass, gluino mass and reheating temperature as well as the derived constraints on these parameters are discussed in detail. This relation offers a unique opportunity to place stringent bounds on the cosmological model, within the gravitino dark matter scenario, from the results of the LHC searches in Run-2 and the planned High-Luminosity upgrade.
Alexandre Arbey, Etera R. Livine, Clara Montagnon
In the context of the general effort to model black hole dynamics, and in particular their return-to-equilibrium through quasi-normal modes, it is crucial to understand how much test-field perturbations deviate from physical perturbations in modified gravity scenarios. On the one hand, physical perturbations follow the modified Einstein equations of the considered extension of general relativity. The complexity of those equations can quickly escalate with extra fields and non-linear couplings. On the other hand, test-field perturbations, with negligible back-reaction on the space-time geometry, describe the propagation of both matter fields and spin $s=2$ gravitational waves on the black hole geometry. They are not subject to the intricacies of the modified Einstein equations, and only probe the background spacetime metric. If their physics were to not deviate significantly from physical perturbations, they would be especially useful to investigate predictions from quantum gravity scenarios which lack explicit detailed Einstein equations. Here we focus on a specific modified gravity solution -- BCL black holes in scalar-tensor theories -- for which physical perturbations and related QNM frequencies have already been studied and computed numerically. We compute the test-field QNM frequencies and compare the two QNM spectra. This provides a concrete example of the significant differences arising between test-fields and physical perturbations, and flags unphysical deviations related to the test-field framework.
Alexandre Arbey
We describe AlterBBN, a public C program for evaluating the abundances of the elements generated by Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). This program enables the user to compute the abundances of the elements in the standard model of cosmology, and additionally provides possibilities to alter the assumptions of the cosmological model in order to study their consequences on the abundances of the elements. In particular the baryon-to-photon ratio and the effective number of neutrinos, as well as the expansion rate and the entropy content of the Universe during BBN can be modified in AlterBBN. Such features allow the user to test the cosmological models by confronting them to BBN constraints. A presentation of the physics of BBN and the features of AlterBBN is provided here under the form of a manual.
Alexandre Arbey, Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Aldo Deandrea, Bogna Kubik
The real projective plane is a compact, non-orientable orbifold of Euler characteristic 1 without boundaries, which can be described as a twisted Klein bottle. We shortly review the motivations for choosing such a geometry among all possible two-dimensional orbifolds, while the main part of the study will be devoted to dark matter study and limits in Universal Extra Dimensional (UED) models based on this peculiar geometry. In the following we consider such a UED construction based on the direct product of the real projective plane with the standard four-dimensional Minkowski space-time and discuss its relevance as a model of a weakly interacting Dark Matter candidate. One important difference with other typical UED models is the origin of the symmetry leading to the stability of the dark matter particle. This symmetry in our case is a remnant of the six-dimensional Minkowski space-time symmetry partially broken by the compactification. Another important difference is the very small mass splitting between the particles of a given Kaluza-Klein tier, which gives a very important role to co-annihilation effects. Finally the role of higher Kaluza-Klein tiers is also important and is discussed together with a detailed numerical description of the influence of the resonances.
Alexandre Arbey, Marco Battaglia, Farvah Mahmoudi
The search for the production of weakly-interacting SUSY particles at the LHC is crucial for testing supersymmetry in relation to dark matter. Decays of neutralinos into Higgs bosons occur over some significant part of the SUSY parameter space and represent the most important source of $h$ boson production in SUSY decay chains in the MSSM. We study h production in neutralino decays using scans of the phenomenological MSSM. Whilst in constrained MSSM scenarios the decay chi^0_2 -> h chi^0_1 is the dominant channel, this does not hold in more general MSSM scenarios. On the other hand, the chi^0_2,3 -> h chi^0_1 decays remain important and are highly complementary to multi-lepton final states in the LHC searches. The perspectives for the LHC analyses at 8 and 14 TeV as well as the reach of an e+e- collider at 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3 TeV are discussed.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger, Marc Geiller, Etera R. Livine, Francesco Sartini
In the context of the dynamics and stability of black holes in modified theories of gravity, we derive the Teukolsky equations for massless fields of all spins in general spherically-symmetric and static metrics. We then compute the short-ranged potentials associated with the radial dynamics of spin 1 and spin 1/2 fields, thereby completing the existing literature on spin 0 and 2. These potentials are crucial for the computation of Hawking radiation and quasi-normal modes emitted by black holes. In addition to the Schwarzschild metric, we apply these results and give the explicit formulas for the radial potentials in the case of charged (Reissner--Nordström) black holes, higher-dimensional black holes, and polymerized black holes arising from loop quantum gravity. These results are in particular relevant and applicable to a large class of regular black hole metrics. The phenomenological applications of these formulas will be the subject of a companion paper.
Alexandre Arbey, Jérémy Auffinger
We present the new version v2.0 of the public code BlackHawk designed to compute the Hawking radiation of black holes, with both primary and hadronized spectra. This new version aims at opening an avenue toward physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) in Hawking radiation. Several major additions have been made since version v1.0: dark matter/dark radiation emission, spin $3/2$ greybody factors, scripts for cosmological studies, BSM black hole metrics with their associated greybody factors and a careful treatment of the low energy showering of secondary particles; as well as bug corrections. We present, in each case, examples of the new capabilities of BlackHawk.