How Primordial Black Holes Change BBN

Abstract

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) provide a powerful probe of early-universe physics, linking inflationary fluctuations to observable cosmological phenomena. In this work, we use a bottom-up approach to study how PBHs with masses in the range $10^{8} \leq M \leq 10^{13}\,\mathrm{g}$ modify Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) through Hawking radiation. We incorporate PBH evaporation into a reaction-network code to evaluate its impact on light-element abundances. Our analysis shows that PBH evaporation acts as an entropy injection mechanism, increasing the comoving entropy density. To reproduce the observed comoving entropy density per baryon $(s/n_{\mathrm{b}})$ from the CMB, BBN simulations must therefore begin with a smaller initial entropy than in the standard scenario without PBHs. The results also reveal a threshold near $M \approx 10^{10}\,\mathrm{g}$ that separates two distinct regimes of BBN behavior. As an example, for $M \geq 10^{10}\,\mathrm{g}$, the $^4{\mathrm{He}}$ mass fraction $Y_{\mathrm{P}}$ increases monotonically with $\beta$, driven by the enhanced Hubble expansion from PBH energy density. In contrast, for $M \leq 10^{10}\,\mathrm{g}$, $Y_{\mathrm{P}}$ exhibits non-monotonic behavior shaped by the timing of PBH evaporation and its influence on nuclear reaction rates. These findings highlight the sensitivity of BBN to PBH evaporation and establish a framework for understanding how PBH populations influence the thermal history of the early universe.