According to the popular inflationary universe theory, at the beginning of the Big Bang, a mysterious energy caused an exponential expansion of the early universe, creating all known matter. That ancient energy shared important characteristics with the dark energy of the current universe. “Where in the later universe will we see gravity as strong as it was at the beginning of the universe?'' The answer lies at the center of a black hole. What happened during inflation could also be reversed, with the matter of a massive star becoming dark energy again during gravitational collapse – like a mini-Big Bang played in reverse. A new study strengthens the evidence for this scenario using recent data. dark energy spectrometer (DESI).
A view of the accretion disk surrounding a supermassive black hole and the jet-like structures flowing out of the disk. The black hole's extreme mass bends space-time so that the backside of the accretion disk can be seen as an image above and below the black hole. Image credit: Science Communication Lab, DESY.
“If a black hole contains dark energy, it could merge with the expanding universe and grow faster,” said Dr. Kevin Croker, an astronomer at Arizona State University.
“We can't know the details of how this is happening, but we can see evidence that it's happening.”
Data from the first year of DESI's planned five-year study shows intriguing evidence that the density of dark energy has increased over time.
This provides a compelling clue to support this idea of what dark energy is. Because that increase in time matches how the amount and mass of black holes has increased over time.
“When I first got involved in this project, I was very skeptical,” said Boston University professor Steve Arlen.
“But I remained open-minded throughout the process, and when I started doing the cosmological calculations, I said, 'This is a really cool mechanism for creating dark energy.'”
To look for evidence of dark energy from black holes, astronomers used tens of millions of distant galaxies measured by DESI.
The instrument looks into the past billions of years and collects data that can be used to determine with great precision how fast the universe is expanding.
Furthermore, these data can be used to infer how the amount of dark energy changes over time.
The researchers compared these data to how many black holes have been created by large star explosions throughout the history of the universe.
“The two phenomena were consistent with each other. When a new black hole was created by the death of a massive star, the amount of dark energy in the universe increased in the right way,” said Dr. Duncan Farrar, a physicist at New York University. said. Hawaii.
“This makes the theory that black holes are the source of dark energy more plausible.”
This study complements a growing literature investigating the possibility of cosmological coupling in black holes.
A 2023 study reported cosmological coupling in a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy.
This study encouraged other teams to investigate the effects of black holes in different parts of the universe.
“These papers explore the relationship between dark energy and black holes in terms of their growth rate,” said astrophysicist at Healthpeak Properties and former general counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. said Dr. Brian Cartwright.
“Our new paper links dark energy to when black holes are born.”
The main difference in the new paper is that most of the black holes involved are younger than those studied previously.
These black holes were born at a time when star formation, which tracks black hole formation, was well underway, not just beginning.
Professor Roger Windhorst from Arizona State University said: “This happened fairly late in the universe and is informed by recent measurements of black hole formation and growth observed by the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes. ” he said.
“The next question is where are these black holes and how have they been moving around for the past eight billion years? Scientists are now working to suppress this,” Croker said. the doctor said.
Science needs more research and observation tools, and now that DESI is online, this exploration of dark energy is just beginning.
“Whether or not we continue to support the black hole hypothesis, this only brings further depth and clarity to our understanding of dark energy,” Professor Ahlen said.
“I think it's great as an experimental endeavor. You can have preconceptions or not, but we're based on data and observation.”
Regardless of what future observations yield, the research being conducted now represents a major shift in dark energy research.
“Essentially, whether black holes are dark energy is no longer just a theoretical question, coupled with the universe in which they live. This is now an experimental question,” said Gregory of the University of Michigan.・Professor Tarr said.
of study Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
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Kevin S. Crocker others. 2024. The temporal evolution of DESI dark energy is harvested by cosmologically coupled black holes. JCAP 10:094;Doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2024/10/094
This article is adapted from the original release by the University of Michigan.
Source: www.sci.news
