Lunar Mass Black Holes from QCD Axion Cosmology

Abstract

In the QCD axion scenario, a network of domain walls bounded by cosmic strings fragments into pieces. As these fragments collapse, some of them will form black holes. With standard QCD axion parameters, the black holes will have lunar masses ($M_{\rm bh} \sim 10^{-8}\, {\rm M}_\odot$). Even though their number density is difficult to estimate, arguments suggest that they can constitute a reasonable fraction of the critical cosmological density.