The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed that black holes could form early supermassive black holes just a few eons after the Big Bang, much earlier than previously believed. These monstrous bodies, such as the billion-solar mass black holes in the era of the young universe, poses questions in the black hole formation, which conventional theories take billions of years. UCLA Astrophysicists
A recent study carried out by UCLA astrophysics and recently published under Physical Review Letters advances a new theory for this cosmic puzzle. Currently, Wang et al have simplified the state of research indicating that dark matter may be instrumental in preventing the hydrogen gas in the young universe from cooling too fast thus facilitating the formation of these supermassive black holes.
It is hard to describe how surprised we are to find a supermassive black hole of such mass in a universe that is so young If you were to find a modern car in the midst of dinosaur fossils, that would be as much of a shock, said Alexander Kusenko, the senior author of the UCLA study and a professor of physics and astronomy at the University. Indeed, it means that there is something more than what we normally can comprehend going on.
The Cooling Mystery
Normally, the formation of the black hole happens with the help of a Large star, which is at least 50 times the mass of the Sun, and it burns up within billions of years. It becomes a black hole at its core, then its known as a stellar black hole, super-massive black hole and mini black hole. However, such processes alone cannot explain new supermassive black holes discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope: they are much more massive and appear much earlier than the others.
It raised questions on whether large gas clouds could directly form SMBH and whether astrophysicists and other related scientists have not been searching for it for long. However, there was a sudden cooling in the early universe due to gas clouds and thus, they broke into regions of smaller halos thus, the absence of a huge black hole.
Yifan Lu, the first author of the study and a doctoral student, says, “The hydrogen molecules in the early universe served as a cooling mechanism which quickly released thermal energy and thus enabled the creation of less massive halos, not the big black holes.
The Dark Matter Connection
That is why the study suggests that dark matter, an elusive form of matter believed to make up most of the universe’s mass but not directly observable, might be the answer. Some may say that dark matter could contain particles that decay into photons, suggested the researchers. These photons would radiate heat, warming the clouds and preventing them from becoming too cold, which could lead to the formation of supermassive black holes.
Another researcher involved in the study Zachary Picker continues by saying: “If dark matter decays, the appeared radiation militates against too rapid cooling of hydrogen clouds and therefore provides a possibility for the formation of large clouds and subsequent creation of supermassive black holes.
Implications for Dark Matter
This discovery helps in understanding the process of earliest formation of supermassive black holes and the presence of certain category of dark matter that disintegrates into photon. According to this discovery it could shed much light on the concept of dark matter and the universe in the ancient ages.
“We still don’t know what dark matter is, but we have discovered that its decay products could play a crucial role in cosmic evolution,” Picker said. “These products might offer potential evidence for the workings of dark matter physics that remain to be uncovered.”
Key Takeaways
- Formation of SMBHs shortly after the big bang poses a potential problem to the formation theory that has been proposed.
- UCLA researchers believe that while dark matter might give early forming hydrogen clouds a way of avoiding cooling too quickly, it also might explain birth of these gigantic black holes.
- The study not only brings about the answers to the existence of early supermassive black holes but also supports the theory of dark matter particle that decays into photon.
As the universe continues to unveil its mysteries, these findings bring us a step closer to understanding the intricate processes that shaped our cosmos.