Pair Creation and Evolution

of Black Holes in Inflation∗

arXiv:gr-qc/9608008v1 2 Aug 1996

Raphael Bousso† and Stephen W. Hawking‡

Department of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics
University of Cambridge
Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW

DAMTP/R-96/35

Abstract
We summarise recent work on the quantum production of black holes in
the inflationary era. We describe, in simple terms, the Euclidean approach
used, and the results obtained both for the pair creation rate and for the
evolution of the black holes.

∗
based on a talk given by R. Bousso at the Journées Relativistes 96 (Ascona, Switzerland, May
1996)
†
[email protected]
‡
[email protected]

1
Introduction One usually thinks of black holes forming through gravitational
collapse, and so it seems that inflation is not a good place to look for black holes,
since matter is hurled apart by the rapid cosmological expansion. We will show,
however, that it is possible to get black holes in inflation through the quantum
process of pair creation [1, 2]. There are two physical motivations that might lead us
to expect this: First of all, quantum fluctuations can be very large during inflation,
which leads to large density perturbations. Secondly, in order to pair create any
objects, whether particles or black holes, one needs a force to pull them apart.
Think of electron-positron pair creation: unless there is a force pulling them apart,
the virtual particles will just fall back and annihilate. But if they are in an external
electric field, the field pulls them apart and provides them with the energy to become
real particles. Similarly, whenever one pair creates black holes, one needs to do it on a
background that will pull them apart. This could be, for example, Melvin’s magnetic
universe, where oppositely charged black holes are separated by the background
magnetic field, or a cosmic string, which can snap with black holes sitting on the
bare terminals, pulled apart by the string tension. For the black holes we shall
consider, the necessary force will be provided by the rapid expansion of space during
inflation. So this expansion, which we naively thought would prevent black holes
from forming, actually enables pair creation.

Inflation In quantum cosmology, one expects the universe to begin in a phase

called chaotic inflation. In this era the evolution of the universe is dominated by
the vacuum energy V (φ) of some inflaton field φ. V starts out at about the Planck
value, and then decreases slowly while the field rolls down to the minimum of the
potential. During this time the universe behaves like de Sitter space with an effective
cosmological constant Λeff ≈ V (see Fig. 1). Like the scalar field, Λeff decreases only
very slowly in time, and for the purposes of calculating the pair creation rate, we
can take Λ to be fixed [1].

Instanton method An instanton is a Euclidean solution of the Einstein equa-

tions, i.e., a solution with signature (++++). Instantons can be used for the de-
scription of non-perturbative gravitational effects, such as spontaneous black hole
formation. What follows is a kind of kitchen recipe for this type of application. We
must consider two different spacetimes: de Sitter space without black holes (i.e.,
the inflationary background), and de Sitter space containing a pair of black holes.
For each of these two types of universes, we must find an instanton which can be

2
 1 tiny black holes,
unsuppressed
(effective cosmological constant)

large black holes,

strongly suppressed

0
(time) inflation ends

Figure 1: The classical evolution of the effective cosmological constant in a typical model
of chaotic inflation. We have indicated qualitatively how the nucleation size and pair
creation rate of black holes depend on the effective cosmological constant.

analytically continued to become this particular Lorentzian universe. The next step
is to calculate the Euclidean action I of each instanton. According to the Hartle-
Hawking no boundary proposal [3], the value of a wave function Ψ is assigned to
each universe. In the semi-classical approximation Ψ = e−I , neglecting a prefactor.
Re
P = |Ψ|2 = e−2I is then interpreted as a probability measure for the creation of
each particular universe. (Note that P depends only on the real part of the Eu-
clidean action.) The pair creation rate of black holes on the background of de Sitter
space is finally obtained by taking the ratio Γ = PBH /Pno BH of the two probability
measures. One can also think of Γ as the ratio of the number of inflationary Hubble
volumes containing black holes to the number of empty Hubble volumes.

3
de Sitter We begin with the simpler of the two spacetimes, an inflationary uni-
verse without black holes. In this case the spacelike sections are round three-spheres.
In the Euclidean de Sitter solution, the three-spheres begin at zero radius, expand
q
and then contract in Euclidean time. Thus they form a four-sphere of radius 3/Λ.
The analytic continuation can be visualised (see Fig. 2) as cutting the four-sphere

de Sitter Schwarzschild-de Sitter

3
S
S1 S2
Lorentzian
section

Euclidean
section

Figure 2: The creation of a de Sitter universe (left) can be visualised as half of a Euclidean
four-sphere joined to a Lorentzian four-hyperboloid. The picture on the right shows the
corresponding nucleation process for a de Sitter universe containing a pair of black holes.
In this case the spacelike slices have non-trivial topology.

in half, and then joining to it half the Lorentzian de Sitter hyperboloid, where the
three-spheres expand exponentially in Lorentzian time. The real part of the Eu-
clidean action for this geometry comes from the Euclidean half-four-sphere only:
Re
Ino BH = −3π/2Λ. Correspondingly, the probability measure for de Sitter space is

3π
 
Pno BH = exp . (1)
Λ

Schwarzschild-de Sitter Now we need to go through the same procedure with

the Schwarzschild-de Sitter solution, which corresponds to a pair of black holes
immersed in de Sitter space. The spacelike sections in this case have the topology
S 1 × S 2 . This can be seen by the following analogy: Empty Minkowski space has

4
spacelike sections of topology R3 . Inserting a black hole changes the topology to
S 2 × R. Similarly, if we start with de Sitter space (topology S 3 ), inserting a black
hole is like punching a hole through the three-sphere, thus changing the topology
to S 1 × S 2 . In general, the radius of the S 2 varies along the S 1 . The maximum
two-sphere corresponds to the cosmological horizon, the minimum to the black hole
horizon. This is shown in Fig. 3.

non-degenerate Schwarzschild-de Sitter degenerate Schwarzschild-de Sitter

cosmological horizon
black hole horizon S2

S1

identify identify

Figure 3: The spacelike slices of Schwarzschild-de Sitter space have the topology S 1 × S 2 .
In general (left), the size of the two-sphere varies along the one-sphere. If the black hole
mass is maximal, however, all the two-spheres have the same size (right). Only in this
case is a smooth Euclidean solution admitted.

What we need is a Euclidean solution that can be analytically continued to

contain this kind of spacelike slice. It turns out that such a smooth instanton does
not exist in general for the Lorentzian Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetimes. The only
exception is the degenerate case, where the black hole has the maximum possible
size, and the radius of the two-spheres is constant along the S 1 (see Fig. 3). The
corresponding Euclidean solution
√ is just the topological product of two round two-
spheres, both of radius 1/ Λ [4]. It can be analytically continued to the Lorentzian
Schwarzschild-de Sitter solution by cutting one of the two-spheres in half, and joining
to it the 2-dimensional hyperboloid of 1 + 1 dimensional Lorentzian de Sitter space,
as shown in Fig. 2. In the Lorentzian regime the S 1 expands exponentially, while the
two-sphere just retains its constant radius. Thus the Euclidean approach predicts
the size with which the black holes will be nucleated:
s
1
rBH = . (2)
Λ

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 Re
The real part of the Euclidean action for this instanton is given by IBH = −π/Λ,
and the corresponding probability measure is
2π
 
PBH = exp . (3)
Λ

Pair creation rate Now we can take the ratio of the two probability measures,
and obtain the pair creation rate:
π
 
Γ = exp − . (4)
Λ
Let us interpret this result. The cosmological constant is positive and no larger
than order unity in Planck units. This means that black hole pair creation is sup-
pressed. When Λ ≈ 1 (early in inflation), the suppression is week and one can get
a large number of black holes. However, by Eq. (2), they will be very small (Planck
size). For smaller values of Λ (which are attained later in inflation), the black holes
would be larger, but their creation becomes exponentially suppressed (see Fig. 1).
This result, which was obtained from the no boundary proposal, is physically very
sensible.

Tunnelling proposal According to Vilenkin’s tunnelling proposal [5], the wave

function is given by e+I , rather than e−I . If we tried to apply this prescription to
our problem, the signs would get reversed in all the exponents, and we would get
the inverse result for Γ. Thus black hole creation would be enhanced, rather than
suppressed. Even worse, the bigger the black holes were, the more likely they would
be to nucleate. As a consequence, de Sitter space would be catastrophically unstable.
This prediction is obviously absurd. Thus, the consideration of cosmological black
hole pair creation provides strong evidence in favour of the no boundary proposal.

Classical evolution What happens to black holes that have been pair created
during inflation? In√the above instanton solution they would just retain their con-
stant size rBH = 1/ Λ. But in this case it is important to take into account that
during inflation, the effective cosmological constant isn’t fixed, but decreases slowly.
√
With this correction, the black hole radius during inflation is given by rBH = 1/ Λeff .
As the inflaton field rolls down, Λeff decreases, and the black hole grows slowly, be-
coming quite large by the end of inflation. This growth can be explained by the
First Law of black hole mechanics, which states that the increase in a black hole’s

6
horizon area, multiplied by its temperature, is equal to four times the increase in its
mass. The mass increase comes from the flux of energy-momentum of the inflaton
field across the black hole horizon, as the field rolls down.

Quantum evolution There are some quantum effects on the evolution which we
have not yet taken into account. It is well known that both the black hole and the
cosmological horizon emit radiation. The temperature of each horizon is approxi-
mately proportional to its inverse radius. In the instanton solution the radii of the
two horizons will be equal, and, therefore, also their radiation rates. The black hole
loses as much mass due to Hawking radiation as it gains from the incoming cosmo-
logical radiation, and it would seem to be stable. Because of quantum fluctuations,
however, the radius of the two-spheres will vary slightly along the one-sphere. Then
the black hole will be smaller and hotter than the cosmological horizon. It starts
to lose mass and evaporates. Only if it was created very late in inflation would it
be massive and cold enough to grow classically and survive into the radiation era.
But such black holes are highly suppressed. The tiny, hot black holes created early
in inflation will all evaporate immediately. Therefore there will be no significant
number of neutral black holes after inflation ends.

Magnetically charged black holes There also are instantons that correspond to
the creation of magnetically charged black holes. Such black holes cannot evaporate
altogether, because there are no magnetically charged particles they could radiate.
Therefore they are still around today. A detailed calculation shows, however, that
they are so suppressed, and so strongly diluted by the inflationary expansion, that
there won’t even be a single charged primordial black hole in the observable universe.
(This is a sensible prediction, since we don’t observe any.) In dilatonic theories of
inflation, however, their number could be significantly larger; this is currently being
investigated.

Summary Semi-classical calculations indicate that tiny black holes are plentifully
produced at the Planck era. The creation of larger black holes is exponentially
suppressed. During inflation, the black holes can grow classically, but will mostly
evaporate due to quantum effects. Magnetically charged black holes cannot evap-
orate, but their number today is exponentially small. Generally, in the context of
cosmological pair creation of black holes, the no boundary proposal gives physically
sensible results, while the tunnelling proposal does not seem to be applicable.

7
References
[1] R. Bousso and S. W. Hawking: The probability for primordial black holes. Phys.
Rev. D 52, 5659 (1995), gr–qc/9506047.

[2] R. Bousso and S. W. Hawking: Pair creation of black holes during inflation.
Preprint no. DAMTP/R–96/33, gr–qc/9606052.

[3] J. B. Hartle and S. W. Hawking: Wave function of the Universe. Phys. Rev. D
28, 2960 (1983).

[4] P. Ginsparg and M. J. Perry: Semiclassical perdurance of de Sitter space. Nucl.

Phys. B222, 245 (1983).

[5] A. Vilenkin: Boundary conditions in quantum cosmology. Phys. Rev. D 33, 3560
(1986).