The evolution of primordial black hole masses in the radiation-dominated era

We discuss in this work the behaviour of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the radiation era. Taking into account the Hawking evaporation and the absorption of energy we revisit the complete differential equation for the evolution of the mass of a PBH. We show that the mass can grow in this cosmological phase in a very slow fashion (even when considering the very high temperature of the radiation) if at all, and give a strong upper limit to the maximum accretion of mass. We evaluate relativistic effects due to the peculiar motion relative to the CMBR and show that the existence of relativistic black holes with very high mass absorption is highly unlikely. Finally we demonstrate that thermodynamic equilibrium between black holes and the cosmic radiation can not exist for finite times, and therefore initially non-evaporating PBHs must jump to the evaporating regime. This analysis supports the several efforts performed to look for signatures of evaporating holes.