Dark Matter May Produce Exploding Stars Powered by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, Study Reveals

For decades, astronomers have tried and failed to detect a ghostly substance known as dark matter. Yet, experts are aware that it can enormously influence normal matter in the universe, like stars and galaxies.

(Photo: Wikimedia/ ESO, D. Coe (STScI), J. Merten (Heidelberg/Bologna), HST Frontier Fields, Harald Ebeling(University of Hawaii at Manoa), Jean-Paul Kneib (LAM)and Johan Richard (Caltech, USA))

Dark matter can spin, push, or rip apart galaxies using its massive gravitational pull. It can also act like a cosmic carnival mirror where light from distant objects is bent to create distorted or multiple images.

A recent study suggests that dark matter can create more intense events like this by producing stars that explode.

Dark Matter Interactions

While dark matter could ruin galaxies, little is known about the possibility of dark matter interacting with itself other than through gravity. If other forces are applied, they must be very weak; otherwise, they would have been measured.

A potential candidate for dark matter particles has been intensely studied with no observational evidence. It comprises a hypothetical class of weakly interacting massive particles known as WIMPs.

Other particles have recently become the focus of attention for weakly interacting despite being extremely light. Also known as axions, these particles were first proposed in the late 1970s as a solution to a quantum problem. It turns out that axions may also fit the bill for dark matter.

While WIMPs cannot stick together to form small objects, axions can do so. Their extremely light nature would account for many axions for all the dark matter. This means that axions must be crammed together, which they don't mind since they are a subatomic particle known as boson.

As a matter of fact, calculations reveal that axions can be packed so closely that they may start behaving strangely. They could act like a wave according to the rules of quantum mechanics. This state is called a Bose-Einstein condensate, which could unexpectedly enable axions to form 'stars.' This event can happen when the wave moves on its own to create a "soliton", a localized lump of energy which can move without getting distorted or dispersed.

An Observational Test

In a new study, researchers provide calculations that demonstrate that such solitons would eventually grow in size and become stars. They can grow similar in size to or larger than a regular star until they finally become unstable and explode.

Dubbed as "bosenova", the energy released from one such explosion would be comparable to that of a supernova. Since dark matter far outweighs the visible matter in the universe, this event can leave a sign in our observations of the sky. Astronomers have yet to find such scars, but a recent study gives the experts something to look for.

The researchers claim that the surrounding gas, composed of normal matter, would absorb the extra energy from the explosion and emit some of it back. Most of this gas is made of hydrogen, so this light should be detectable in radio frequencies.