Non-linear statistics of primordial black holes from gaussian curvature perturbations

Abstract: We develop the non-linear statistics of primordial black holes generated by a gaussian spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations. This is done by employing the compaction function as the main statistical variable under the constraints that: a) the over-density has a high peak at a point $\vec{x}_0$, b) the compaction function has a maximum at a smoothing scale $R$, and finally, c) the compaction function amplitude at its maximum is higher than the threshold necessary to trigger a gravitational collapse into a black hole of the initial over-density. Our calculation allows for the fact that the patches which are destined to form PBHs may have a variety of profile shapes and sizes. The predicted PBH abundances depend on the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations. For a very peaked power spectrum, our non-linear statistics, the one based on the linear over-density and the one based on the use of curvature perturbations, all predict a narrow distribution of PBH masses and comparable abundance. For broader power spectra the linear over-density statistics over-estimate the abundance of primordial black holes while the curvature-based approach under-estimates it. Additionally, for very large smoothing scales, the abundance is no longer dominated by the contribution of a mean over-density but rather by the whole statistical realisations of it.