articlePhysical Review LettersNov 13, 2023GREEN OA

Recent Gravitational Wave Observation by Pulsar Timing Arrays and Primordial Black Holes: The Importance of Non-Gaussianities

GFGabriele FrancioliniAJAntonio J. IovinoVVVille VaskonenHVHardi Veermäe

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma I · Sapienza University of Rome · +3 more institutions

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Abstract

We study whether the signal seen by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) may originate from gravitational waves (GWs) induced by large primordial perturbations. Such perturbations may be accompanied by a sizable primordial black hole (PBH) abundance. We improve existing analyses and show that PBH overproduction disfavors Gaussian scenarios for scalar-induced GWs at 2 sigmas
\n and single-field inflationary scenarios, accounting for non-Gaussianity, at 3 sigmas as the explanation of the most constraining NANOGrav 15-year data. This tension can be relaxed in models where non-Gaussianities suppress the PBH abundance. On the flip side, the PTA data does not constrain the abundance of PBHs.

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Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Physics
  • Primordial black hole
  • Astrophysics
  • Gravitational wave
  • Pulsar
  • Cosmology
  • Sky
  • Binary black hole
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