Numerical investigation of the threshold for primordial black hole formation

First results of a numerical investigation of primordial black hole formation in the radiation dominated phase of the Early Universe are presented. The simulations follow the gravitational collapse of three different families of high-amplitude density fluctuations imposed at the time of horizon crossing. The threshold for black hole formation, δc ≈ 0.7, is found to be nearly identical for all perturbation families if the control parameter, δ, is chosen as the total excess mass within the initial horizon volume. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the scaling of black hole mass with distance from the formation threshold, known to occur in near-critical gravitational collapse, applies to primordial black hole formation.