Primordial black hole dark matter in dilaton-extended two-field Starobinsky inflation

We investigate the production of primordial black holes and their contribution to the presently observed dark matter in a dilaton two-field extension of Starobinsky’s quadratic f(R) model of inflation. The model features a multi-field amplification mechanism which leads to the generation of a sharp peak in the inflationary power spectrum at small wavelengths responsible for the production of primordial black holes. This mechanism is significantly different from single-field models and requires a stochastic treatment during an intermediate phase of the inflationary dynamics. We find that the model leads to a successful phase of effective single-field Starobinsky inflation for wavelengths probed by the cosmic microwave background radiation and explains the observed cold dark matter content in the Universe by the formation of primordial black holes.