Black Holes in the Early Universe

Abstract

The existence of galaxies today implies that the early Universe must have been inhomogeneous. Some regions might have got so compressed that they underwent gravitational collapse to produce black holes. Once formed, black holes in the early Universe would grow by accreting nearby matter. A first estimate suggests that they might grow at the same rate as the Universe during the radiation era and be of the order of 10 ¹⁵ to 10 ¹⁷ solar masses now. The observational evidence however is against the existence of such giant black holes. This motivates a more detailed study of the rate of accretion which shows that black holes will not in fact substantially increase their original mass by accretion. There could thus be primordial black holes around now with masses from 10 ⁻⁵ g upwards.