Publications

After my Inaugural Lecture at TU Dortmund | Germany, 2025

My peer-reviewed scientific articles (latest first; respective list of authors mostly in alphabetical order) together with two works [36, 51] which have been submitted to scientific journal; they are accessible via the preprint server arXiv. My top five publications [19, 33, 37, 39, 41] are highlighted. The total number of citations is 4478 (on INSPIRE, until the 4th of March 2026), which includes five top-cite-50+ [17, 23, 32, 34, 37], three top-cite-100+ [20, 38, 41], two top-cite-250+ [33, 40] paper, and two top-cite-500+ [19, 31] papers, one of which [19] has acquired over 1000 citations and has become one of the most-cited articles in the field. My published articles have acquired over 100 citations on avarage.

[52] Primordial Black Holes as Seeds for Extremely Overmassive AGN Observed by JWST
Saiyang Zhang, Boyuan Liu, Volker Bromm, Florian Kühnel
e-print: arXiv:2512.14066 [astro-ph.GA]
Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
[51] Micro Black Hole Dark Matter
Manuel Ettengruber, Florian Kühnel
e-print: arXiv:2506.14871 [hep-th]
[50] Positive Indications for Primordial Black Holes
Florian Kühnel
Invited book chapter in Primordial Black Holes. Springer Series in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Springer, Singapore (2025)
[49] Does Memory Burden Open a New Mass Window for Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter?
Gabriele Montefalcone, Dan Hooper, Katherine Freese, Chris Kelso, Florian Kühnel, Pearl Sandick
Phys. Rev. D 113, 023524 (2026)
e-print: arXiv: 2503.21005 [astro-ph.CO]
[48] How do Massive Primordial Black Holes Impact the Formation of the First Stars and Galaxies?
Saiyang Zhang, Boyuan Liu, Volker Bromm, Junehyoung Jeon, Michael Boylan-Kolchin, Florian Kühnel
Astrophys. J. 987, 185 (2025)
e-print: arXiv:2503.17585 [astro-ph.GA]
[47] Primordial Black Holes
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel
Invited chapter in The Encyclopedia of Astrophysics
e-print: arXiv:2502.15279 [astro-ph.CO]
[46] Aspects of Spatially-Correlated Random Fields: Extreme-Value Statistics and Clustering Properties
Ka Hei Choi, James Creswell, Florian Kühnel, Dominik Schwarz
e-print: arXiv:2501.17936 [astro-ph.CO]
Accepted for publication in The Physical Review D .
[45] Revisiting Primordial Black Hole Capture by Neutron Stars
Roberto Caiozzo, Gianfranco Bertone, Florian Kühnel
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 2024, 091 (2024)
e-print: arXiv:2404.08057 [astro-ph.HE]
[44] Reconstructing Primordial Black Hole Power Spectra from Gravitational Waves
Daniel Frolovsky, Florian Kühnel, Ioanna Stamou
Phys. Rev. D 111, 043538 (2025)
e-print: arXiv:2404.06547 [astro-ph.CO]
[43] Solar Evolution Models with a Central Black Hole
Earl Bellinger, Matt Caplan, Taeho Ryu, Deepika Bollimpalli, Warrick Ball, Florian Kühnel, Robert Farmer, Selma de Mink, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard
Astrophys. J. 959, 113 (2023)
e-print: arXiv:2312.06782 [astro-ph.CO]
[42] Vortex Effects in Merging Black Holes and Saturons
Gia Dvali, Oleg Kaikov, Florian Kühnel, Juan Valbuena-Bermúdez, Michael Zantedeschi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 151402 (2024)
e-print: arXiv:2310.02288 [hep-th]
[41] Observational Evidence for Primordial Black Holes: A Positivist Perspective
Bernard Carr, Sébastien Clesse, Juan García-Bellido, Michael Hawkins, Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rep. 1054, 1 (2024)
e-print: arXiv:2306.03903 [astro-ph.CO]

[40] Primordial Black Holes
Albert Escrivà, Florian Kühnel, Yuichiro Tada
Invited book chapter in Black Holes in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy, 261-377 (2024)
e-print: arXiv:2211.05767 [astro-ph.CO]
[39] Vortices in Black Holes
Gia Dvali, Florian Kühnel, Michael Zantedeschi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 061302 (2022)
e-print: arXiv:2112.08354 [hep-th]

[38] Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter Candidates
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel
SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 48 (2022)
e-print: arXiv:2110.02821 [astro-ph.CO]
[37] Primordial Black Holes from Confinement
Gia Dvali, Florian Kühnel, Michael Zantedeschi
Phys. Rev. D 104, 123507 (2021)
e-print: arXiv:2108.09471 [hep-ph]

[36] Extreme-Value Distributions and Primordial Black-Hole Formation
Florian Kühnel, Dominik Schwarz
e-print: arXiv:2101.10340 [astro-ph.CO]
[35] Lepton Flavour Asymmetries and the Mass Spectrum of Primordial Black Holes
Dietrich Bödeker, Florian Kühnel, Isabel Oldengott, Dominik Schwarz
Phys. Rev. D 103, 063506 (2021)
e-print: arXiv:2011.07283 [astro-ph.CO]
[34] Black Holes and WIMPs: All or Nothing or Something Else
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel, Luca Visinelli
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 506, 3648 (2021)
e-print: arXiv:2011.01930 [astro-ph.CO]
[33] Cosmic Conundra Explained by Thermal History and Primordial Black Holes
Bernard Carr, Sébastien Clesse, Juan García-Bellido, Florian Kühnel
Phys. Dark Universe 31, 100755 (2021)
e-print: arXiv:1906.08217 [astro-ph.CO]

[32] Constraints on Stupendously Large Black Holes
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel, Luca Visinelli
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 501, 2029 (2020)
e-print: arXiv:2008.08077 [astro-ph.CO]
[31] Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter: Recent Developments
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel
Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 70, 355 (2020)
e-print: arXiv:2006.02838 [astro-ph.CO]
[30] Waves from the Centre: Probing PBH Dark Matter with LISA
Florian Kühnel, Andrew Matas, Glenn Starkman, Katherine Freese
Eur. Phys. J. C 80, 627 (2020)
e-print: arXiv:1811.06387 [gr-qc]
[29] Primordial Black Hole Signatures
Florian Kühnel, Tommy Ohlsson
Chapter 11 in Probing Particle Physics with Neutrino Telescopes
Edited by C. P. de los Heros, World Scientific (2020), ISBN 978-981-3275-01-0
[28] Compact Dark-Matter Objects via N Dark Sectors
Gia Dvali, Emmanouil Koutsangelas, Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rev. D 101, 083533 (2020)
e-print: arXiv:1911.13281 [astro-ph.CO]
[27] Enhanced Detectability of Spinning Primordial Black Holes
Florian Kühnel
Eur. Phys. J. C 80, 243 (2020)
e-print: arXiv:1909.04742 [astro-ph.CO]
[26] On Stochastic Effects and Primordial Black-Hole Formation
Florian Kühnel, Katherine Freese
Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 687 (2019)
e-print: arXiv:1906.02744 [gr-qc]
[25] Primordial Black Holes with Multi-Spike Mass Spectra
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rev. D 99, 103535 (2019)
e-print: arXiv:1811.06532 [astro-ph.CO]
[24] Decaying Dark Matter and Primordial Black Holes
Florian Kühnel, Tommy Ohlsson
Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 687 (2019)
e-print: arXiv:1811.05810 [astro-ph.CO]
[23] Novel Constraints on the Abundance of Primordial Black Holes and WIMPs
Sofiane Boucenna, Florian Kühnel, Tommy Ohlsson, Luca Visinelli
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 1807, 003 (2018)
e-print: arXiv:1712.06383 [hep-ph]
[22] Uncertainties in Primordial Black-Hole Constraints on the Power Spectrum
Yashar Akrami, Florian Kühnel, Marit Sandstad
Phys. Dark Universe 19, 124 (2018)
e-print: arXiv:1611.10069 [astro-ph.CO]
[21] Signatures of Compact Halos of Sterile-Neutrino Dark Matter
Florian Kühnel, Tommy Ohlsson
Phys. Rev. D 96, 103020 (2017)
e-print: arXiv:1707.04493 [astro-ph.CO]
[20] Constraints on Primordial Black Holes with Extended Mass Functions
Florian Kühnel, Katherine Freese
Phys. Rev. D 94, 063514 (2017)
e-print: arXiv:1701.07223 [astro-ph.CO]
[19] Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter
Bernard Carr, Florian Kühnel, Marit Sandstad
Phys. Rev. D 94, 083504 (2016)
e-print: arXiv:1607.06077 [astro-ph.CO]

[18] On Ellipsoidal Collapse and Primordial Black-Hole Formation
Florian Kühnel, Marit Sandstad
Phys. Rev. D 94, 063514 (2016)
e-print: arXiv:1602.04815 [astro-ph.CO]
[17] Effects of Critical Collapse on Primordial Black-Hole Mass Spectra
Florian Kühnel, Cornelius Rampf, Marit Sandstad
Eur. Phys. J. C 76, 93 (2016)
e-print: arXiv:1512.00488 [astro-ph.CO]
[16] Baryon-Number Conservation in Bose-Einstein Condensate Black Holes
Florian Kühnel, Marit Sandstad
Phys. Rev. D 92, 124028 (2015)
e-print: arXiv:1506.08823 [gr-qc]
[15] Corpuscular Consideration of Eternal Inflation
Florian Kühnel, Marit Sandstad
Eur. Phys. J. C 75, 505 (2015)
e-print: arXiv:1504.02377 [gr-qc]
[14] Consistent Cosmic Microwave Background Spectra from Quantum Depletion
Roberto Casadio, Florian Kühnel, Alessio Orlandi
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 1509, 002 (2015)
e-print: arXiv:1502.04703 [gr-qc]
[13] Thoughts on the Vacuum Energy in the Quantum N-Portrait
Florian Kühnel
Mod. Phys. Lett. A 30, 1550197 (2015)
e-print: arXiv:1408.5897 [gr-qc]
[12] Astrophysical Bose-Einstein Condensates and Superradiance
Florian Kühnel, Cornelius Rampf
Phys. Rev. D 90, 103526 (2014)
e-print: arXiv:1408.0790 [gr-qc]
[11] High-Energy Gravitational Scattering and Graviton Bose-Einstein Condensates
Florian Kühnel, Bo Sundborg
JHEP 1412, 016 (2014)
e-print: arXiv:1406.4147 [hep-th]
[10] Decay of Graviton Condensates and their Generalizations in Arbitrary Dimensions
Florian Kühnel, Bo Sundborg
Phys. Rev. D 90, 064025 (2014)
e-print: arXiv:1405.2083 [hep-th]
[9] Bose-Einstein Condensates with Derivative and Long-Range Interactions
Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rev. D 90, 084024 (2014)
e-print: arXiv:1312.2977 [gr-qc]
[8] Instability of Certain Bimetric and Massive-Gravity Theories
Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rev. D 88, 064024 (2013)
e-print: arXiv:1208.1764 [gr-qc]
[7] Island of Stability for Consistent Deformations of Einstein’s Gravity
Felix Berkhahn, Stefan Hofmann, Florian Kühnel, Parvin Moyassari, Dennis Dietrich
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 131102 (2012)
e-print: arXiv:1106.3566 [hep-th]
[6] Axion Arising from Warped Extra-Dimensional Gauge Fields
Yannis Burnier, Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rev. D 83, 115002 (2011)
e-print: arXiv:1101.5156 [hep-th]
[5] Large-Scale Suppression from Stochastic Inflation
Florian Kühnel, Dominik Schwarz
Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 211302 (2010)
e-print: arXiv:1003.3014 [hep-ph]
[4] Stochastic Cosmological Inflation: A Replica Field-Theoretical Study
Florian Kühnel
Ph.D. Thesis in Theoretical Physics (2009), Bielefeld University
Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften AG Co. KG, 2012
ISBN 978-3-8381-3250-1
[3] Stochastic Inflation and Replica Field Theory
Florian Kühnel, Dominik Schwarz
Phys. Rev. D 79, 044009 (2009)
e-print: arXiv:0810.5686 [gr-qc]
[2] Stochastic Inflation and Dimensional Reduction
Florian Kühnel, Dominik Schwarz
Phys. Rev. D 78, 103501 (2008)
e-print: arXiv:0805.1998 [gr-qc]
[1] Long-Range Correlated Random Field and Random Anisotropy O(N ) Models: A Functional Renormalization Group Study
Andrei Fedorenko, Florian Kühnel
Phys. Rev. B 75, 174206 (2007)
e-print: arXiv:cond-mat/0701256