Gravitational collapse in the postinflationary Universe

Eggemeier, Benedikt ; Schwabe, Bodo ; Niemeyer, Jens C. ; Easther, Richard

Resumen: The Universe may pass through an effectively matter-dominated epoch between inflation and big bang nucleosynthesis during which gravitationally bound structures can form on subhorizon scales. In particular, the inflaton field can collapse into inflaton halos, forming "large scale"structure in the very early universe. We combine N-body simulations with high-resolution zoom-in regions in which the nonrelativistic Schrödinger-Poisson equations are used to resolve the detailed, wave-like structure of inflaton halos. Solitonic cores form inside them, matching structure formation simulations with axion-like particles in the late-time universe. We denote these objects inflaton stars, by analogy with boson stars. Based on a semianalytic formalism we compute their overall mass distribution which shows that some regions will reach overdensities of 1015 if the early matter-dominated epoch lasts for 20 e-folds. The radii of the most massive inflaton stars can shrink below the Schwarzschild radius, suggesting that they could form primordial black holes prior to thermalization. © 2022 American Physical Society.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.023516

Año: 2022

Publicado en: Physical Review D 105, 2 (2022), 023516 [10 pp]
ISSN: 2470-0010

Factor impacto JCR: 5.0 (2022)

Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, PARTICLES & FIELDS rank: 7 / 29 = 0.241 (2022) - Q1 - T1
Categ. JCR: ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS rank: 15 / 69 = 0.217 (2022) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 9.2 - Physics and Astronomy (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.639 - Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Nuclear and High Energy Physics (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI-FEDER/PGC2018-095328-B-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)