Primordial black holes—perspectives in gravitational wave astronomy

Abstract This article reviews current understanding of primordial black holes (PBHs), with particular focus on those massive examples ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mstyle displaystyle="false"> <mml:mo>≳</mml:mo> </mml:mstyle> </mml:math> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mstyle displaystyle="false"> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>15</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mtext> </mml:mtext> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">g</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mstyle> </mml:math> ) which remain at the present epoch, not having evaporated through Hawking radiation. With the detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, we have gained a completely novel observational tool to search for PBHs, complementary to those using electromagnetic waves. Taking the perspective that gravitational-wave astronomy will make significant progress in the coming decades, the purpose of this article is to give a comprehensive review covering a wide range of topics on PBHs. After discussing PBH formation, as well as several inflation models leading to PBH production, we summarize various existing and future observational constraints. We then present topics on formation of PBH binaries, gravitational waves from PBH binaries, and various observational tests of PBHs using gravitational waves.

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