dark matter can form exploding stars – and observing the damage could help reveal what it’s made of Achi-News

Dark matter is a ghostly substance that astronomers have failed to detect for decades, yet we know that it has a tremendous influence on normal matter in the universe, such as stars and galaxies. Through the massive gravitational pull it exerts on galaxies, it spins them up, gives them an extra push along their orbits, or even tears them apart.

Like a cosmic carnival mirror, it also bends the light from distant objects to create distorted or multiple images, a process known as gravitational lensing.

And recent research suggests it could create even more drama than this, by producing exploding stars.

For all the havoc it plays with galaxies, little is known about whether dark matter can interact with itself, except through gravity. If he experiences other forces, they must be very weak, otherwise they would have been measured.

A possible candidate for a dark matter particle, which includes a theoretical class of weakly interacting massive particles (or WIMPs), has been intensively studied, so far without any observational evidence.

Recently, other types of particles, which also interact weakly but are extremely light, have become the focus of attention. These particles, known as axons, were first proposed in the late 1970s to solve a quantum problem, but they may also be suitable for dark matter.

Unlike WIMPs, which cannot “stick” together to form small objects, axons can. Because they are so light, a huge number of axes would have to account for all the dark matter, which means they would have to be squeezed together. But because they are a type of subatomic particle called a boson, they don’t matter.

In fact, calculations show that axes could be packed so closely that they start to behave strangely – acting collectively like a wave – in accordance with the rules of quantum mechanics, the theory that governs the microworld of atoms and particles . This condition is known as Bose-Einstein condensation, and can, unexpectedly, allow axons to form their own “stars”.

This would happen when the wave moves on its own, forming what physicists call a “soliton”, a lump of localized energy that can move without being distorted or scatter This can often be seen on Earth in vortexes and whirlpools, or the bubble rings that dolphins enjoy underwater.

The new study provides calculations showing that such solitons would eventually grow in size, becoming a star, similar in size to, or larger than, a normal star. But finally, they become unstable and explode.

The energy released from one such explosion (dubbed a “bosenova”) would rival the energy of a supernova (an exploding normal star). Given that dark matter is far more abundant than visible matter in the universe, this would certainly leave a mark in our aerial observations. We haven’t found such scars yet, but the new study gives us something to look for.

Observation test

The researchers behind the study say that the surrounding gas, made of normal matter, would absorb this extra energy from the explosion and emit some of it back. Since most of this gas is made of hydrogen, we know that this light should be in radio frequencies.

Excitingly, future observations with the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope may be able to pick it up.

So, although the fireworks of dark star explosions may be hidden from our view, we may be able to find their results in the visible matter. What’s great about this is that such a discovery would help us work out what dark matter is actually made of – in this case, most likely axons.

What if observations do not detect the predicted signal? That probably won’t completely rule out this theory, as other “axon-like” particles are still possible. Failure to detect it can be a sign, however, that the masses of these particles are very different, or that they do not couple with radiation as strongly as we think.

In fact, this has happened before. Originally, it was thought that axes would intertwine so strongly that they would be able to cool the gas inside the stars. But since stellar cooling models show that stars are fine without this mechanism, the coupling strength of the axis must be lower than originally thought.

Of course, there is no guarantee that dark matter is made of axes. WIMPs are still contenders in this race, and there are others too.

Incidentally, some studies suggest that WIMP-like dark matter can also form “dark stars”. In this case, the stars would still be normal (made of hydrogen and helium), powered only by dark matter.

These dark WIMP-powered stars are predicted to be massive and short lived only in the early universe. But they could be observed by the James Webb space telescope. A recent study has claimed that there are three such discoveries, although the jury is still out on whether that is true.

Nevertheless, the excitement about axles is growing, and there are many plans to be found. For example, axons are expected to transform into photons when they pass through a magnetic field, so observations of photons with certain energies target stars with magnetic fields, such as neutron stars, or even the Sun.

On the theoretical front, there are efforts to refine the predictions for what the universe would look like with different types of dark matter. For example, axons can be distinguished from WIMPs by bending the light through gravitational lensing.

With better observations and theory, we hope that the mystery of dark matter will soon be unlocked.