Scientists know that a black hole is at the center of most galaxies, but they can't explain how the giants formed.
The physicists at the DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York have come up with a plausible theory of aological phase transition.
The team theorizes that the universe was cooling from its hot, dense state before the formation of galaxies.
The 10 craziest things we learned about black holes in 2021.
Under those conditions, known particles wouldn't behave like black holes. The researchers theorize that an as-of-yet-unobserved form of dark matter, which is 28 times lighter than a protons at the heart of an atom, might be the key to the process.
If there was a dark sector with dark matter, the universe might have had the right outcome.
The collapse of dark matter would be a phase transition similar to boiling water turning into steam, but in reverse and on the scale of the universe.
Most black holes form when a star collapses, then collect mass over time either by collecting matter that falls into the black hole or by colliding with other black holes.
Scientists believe that black holes formed very early in the universe, which makes them too large to be formed by those means. The model of a collapse of dark matter that the team has created provides a potential explanation and a signal to look for.
These collapses are a big deal. They emit waves that have a characteristic shape.
He said that current technology is not sensitive enough to detect that signal.
The theory was described in a paper.
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