Lattice study of primordial black hole formation in bumpy axion inflation

Abstract

We study primordial black hole (PBH) formation in axion $U(1)$ inflation using lattice simulations. In axion $U(1)$ inflation with a bumpy potential, the curvature perturbations can be enhanced in a narrow range of wavenumbers, potentially leading to PBH formation. After confirming that our lattice simulations reproduced the known curvature power spectra for chaotic inflation and simple axion $U(1)$ inflation, we calculate the curvature power spectrum in the bumpy axion inflation model in the strong backreaction regime. We find that large curvature perturbations are generated, which lead to PBH production with an abundance sufficient to account for dark matter.