Primordial black holes from an electroweak phase transition

Abstract

We propose a mechanism that forms primordial black holes (PBHs) via a first-order electroweak phase transition (FOEWPT). The FOEWPT is realized by extending the Standard Model with a real singlet scalar, while the PBH formation is achieved by the collapse of non-topological solitons called Fermi-balls. Such solitons form via trapping fermions in the false vacuum during the FOEWPT, and they eventually collapse into PBHs due to the internal Yukawa attractive force. We demonstrate that a scenario with PBH dark matter candidate can exist, and the typical experimental signals include FOEWPT gravitational waves and the multi-lepton/jet or displaced vertex final states at the LHC.

Comments: 17 pages + appendix and references, 7 figures. To match the published version