Dan Hooper (University of Chicago) 鈥� February 14, 2024
Abstract
Cosmology textbooks typically assume that the early universe was dominated by relativistic particles. But if even a relatively small number of black holes were created after inflation, they would have constituted an increasingly large fraction of the total energy density as the universe expanded. I鈥檒l argue that it is well-motivated to imagine scenarios in which the early universe included an era in which low-mass (<10^9 grams) primordial black holes dominated the total energy density. Within this context, I鈥檒l discuss Hawking radiation as a mechanism to produce both dark radiation and dark matter. I鈥檒l also talk about the possibility that these black holes may have undergone mergers before evaporating, leading to potentially detectable gravitational waves signals, and to the production of a 鈥渉ot graviton background鈥�. Such black holes could have also played an important role in the process of baryogenesis.
