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How Speeding Particles Froze Into Darkness: A Cosmic Plot Twist Explains Dark Matter
- Dartmouth researchers Robert Caldwell and Guanming Liang proposed in 2023 a new theory that dark matter formed shortly after the Big Bang from fast, massless particles bonding into heavy pairs.
- Their theory builds on the early universe’s hot state where high-energy particles paired via opposing spins, causing a sudden energy drop like steam turning into water, which previous models did not predict.
- This bonding generated cold, heavy particles that could condense into dark matter, which is responsible for gravitational effects shaping the cosmos and is estimated to comprise about 85% of the universe’s mass.
- Caldwell described their model as an effort to clarify the transformation of dark matter from its initial state as nearly massless, light-like particles into the cold, dense clumps that constitute the structure of galaxies, emphasizing the surprising drop in energy that connects the early high-energy conditions to today’s low-energy dark matter.
- The theory predicts a distinctive imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background that current observatories like the Simons Observatory and CMB Stage 4 can test, potentially advancing understanding of dark matter’s nature.
11 Articles
11 Articles
How Speeding Particles Froze Into Darkness: A Cosmic Plot Twist Explains Dark Matter
What if dark matter—the invisible force sculpting our universe—was once pure light? A bold new theory suggests that massless, high-energy particles in the early universe collided, cooled, and abruptly transformed into the heavy, slow particles we call dark matter. Not only does the model explain this unlikely metamorphosis, but it also makes predictions testable via [...]
A New Discovery Can Change the Image of Dark Matter: What Scientists Found in One Galaxy
An unusually dense galaxy can be the first clear proof of the existence of a form of "lip" dark matter, written by New Scientist. This discovery changes people's perception of this mysterious space object. A standard painting of cosmology suggests that the so-called cold dark matter interacts with the rest of the universe only through gravity. The latter causes dark matter to gather into invisible, flat clouds around the galaxy. Scientists can d…
New Study Challenges Fuzzy Dark Matter with Stronger Mass Constraint
A groundbreaking study has set a new lower bound on the mass of ultralight bosonic dark matter particles—2.2 × 10⁻²¹ eV. Using stellar motion data from the dwarf galaxy Leo II and advanced computational models, the team ruled out lighter masses that cannot form observed structures. This challenges the popular fuzzy dark matter theory and paves the way for exploring mixed dark matter models, marking a major step in narrowing down the true nature …
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