Dark matter is a mysterious substance that has puzzled science for decades. Even after much research, its exact nature and origins are still a mystery.
However, new studies show that primordial black holes may be vital to solving this cosmic puzzle.
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ NOIRLab/AURA/NSF/P. Marenfeld)
The Issue Of Dark Matter
Astronomers Vera Rubin and W. Kent Ford proved the existence of dark matter in the 1970s by looking at stars that orbited the edges of spiral galaxies. These stars were moving too fast for the visible matter and gravity of the galaxy to keep them together.
The only thing that could explain it was a lot of hidden matter holding the galaxy together. This invisible matter doesn't interact with light, so it hasn't been seen directly, even though many advanced detectors have been used.
Hawking thought that dark matter might be hiding in black holes made during the Big Bang. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have since revived the idea, which may result in the identification of a new odd black hole.
According to their research published in Physical Review Letters, primitive black holes (PHBs) originated in the first second following the Big Bang. This may clarify dark matter.
Black Holes and Dark Matter
These PHBs differ significantly from the black holes we usually see, made when stars fall apart. Black holes in the early universe would have been much smaller, with masses about the same as rocks packed into the space of an atom.
MIT experts say that these PHBs took in free quarks and gluons from the hot quark-gluon plasma of the early universe. This makes them different from other black holes in the universe.
As PHBs were being made, smaller black holes may have appeared as byproducts. These black holes would have had a unique "color charge" feature only found in quarks and gluons.
These tiny black holes, on the other hand, would have vanished soon after they formed. If they were still around ten-millionths of a second after the big bang, they could have changed the balance between protons and neutrons in a way that could be seen.
This delicate balance could be measured by telescopes on Earth or by sensitive equipment on spacecraft. When these strange black holes formed, they would have sent ripples through space-time that the next generation of gravitational wave monitors would have been able to pick up. This gives us a new way of looking at where dark matter originated.
READ ALSO: Gravity Can Exist Without Mass, Eliminates the Need for Elusive Dark Matter [Study]
What This Means for Dark Matter Research
David Kaiser of MIT and Elba Alonso-Monsalve, a graduate student, did exciting work that can be tested. The potential impact of primordial black holes on the formation of atomic nuclei and the subsequent traces they may have left behind are worth contemplating if they existed in the early universe.
Dark matter may not be restricted to a single type of object, as indicated by this study. Instead, it might be a mix of black holes and particles.
Experiments like the LZ Dark Matter Experiment are still looking for strange particles, but the idea that primordial black holes might be the source of some or all dark matter is becoming more popular. As more gravitational wave detectors are put online, they might pick up the faint signals from the violent birth of the first black holes. This could help solve one of the most giant puzzles in the universe.
This study suggests that the mysterious dark matter might be hiding in the form of primordial black holes. It also opens new ways to study dark matter and the early universe. The results are a big step toward solving the cosmic puzzle scientists have tried to figure out for decades.
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