Gravitational Waves Hint at Primordial Black Holes from Big Bang
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Scientists may have detected the first hints of primordial black holes, theorized to have formed during the Big Bang. This potential discovery stems from an alert issued on November 12, 2023, by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, following the observation of a gravitational wave event designated S251112cm.
Unlike typical black hole mergers, this signal indicated one object with a mass too small for a stellar-mass black hole or neutron star, leading researchers like Durham University's Djuna Croon to state that if confirmed, this finding could be enormous.
Gravitational wave astronomer Christopher Berry noted that the signal likely originated from a subsolar mass source, with a chirp mass estimated at 0.10.87 solar masses. However, the chance of this being a false alarm is significant, with estimates suggesting a false alarm rate of one every four years for such rare signals.
Primordial black holes are believed to have formed from dense regions in the early universe's plasma and could range in mass from one one-hundred-thousandth of a paperclip to one hundred thousand times that of the sun.
Their existence could provide insights into dark matter, which constitutes approximately eighty-five percent of the universe's matter yet remains undetectable by electromagnetic radiation. If primordial black holes exist, they could explain dark matter without requiring physics beyond the Standard Model.
The detection of S251112cm has prompted astronomers to search for any accompanying electromagnetic signals, although the gravitational wave detectors pinpointed the source to an area of the sky about six thousand times the width of the moon, complicating this search.
Researchers are currently analyzing the gravitational wave signal's characteristics to learn more about the objects involved in the merger. However, Djuna Croon indicated that it seems unlikely that researchers will ascertain with certainty whether this alert was genuine, unless further similar signals are detected in the future.