LIGO/Virgo Black Holes from a First Order QCD Phase Transition

Abstract

We propose that $O(10M_{\mathrm{Sun}})$ black holes observed by LIGO/Virgo originate from a first order QCD phase transition at a temperature $T_{\ast }\lesssim 100$~MeV. This is realized by keeping the quark masses small compared to confinement scale down to $T\sim T_{\ast }$, making QCD transition first order. We implement this scenario using a light scalar that could potentially be a good dark matter candidate.

Comments: 6 pages, Revtex4. New version implements a model that does not lead to supercooling issues from weak scale vacuum energies