Unraveling the very early universe with black holes, boson stars, and cannibal stars

According to the standard picture of cosmology, the rich structure of our universe began to form roughly 50,000 years after the big bang. In this talk I will explore the possibility that cosmic structures could also have formed in the extremely early universe, within a fraction of a second after inflation. I will show how this early structure formation can give rise to compact objects, including exotic stars and primordial black holes. These relics provide powerful probes of the first instants of cosmic history, especially the reheating epoch, and may even act as seeds for cosmological phase transitions.

Note: This seminar is jointly organized by the iTHEMS-phys Study Group and the iTHEMS-ABBL Joint Astro Study Group.