Introducing primordial black holes

by Christian Byrnes (University of Sussex)

Wednesday 17 Jun 2026, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

4/3-006 - TH Conference Room (CERN)

While black holes can be the remnants of stellar collapse, some may have formed in the early universe - making them primordial black holes (PBHs). These would form a relic from the early universe, preserving a memory of the initial conditions of the universe at early times and on small scales. PBHs do not require the introduction of new fundamental physics, making them a special dark matter candidate. In this talk, I will outline observational constraints on PBHs and potential routes to a detection, explore their connections to gravitational wave signals and early universe cosmology, and discuss how the evaporation of primordial black holes could produce high-energy particles.