Mystery continues: New study says dark matter might have formed before Big Bang

dark matter
Composite image of the Perseus galaxy cluster using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton and Hitomi, a Japanese-led X-ray telescope. X-ray: NASA/CXO/Fabian

Dark matter is one of the most mysterious entities in the cosmos and experts believe that these dark entities form more than 85 percent of the universe. Even though scientists are still unclear about the origin of dark matter, a new study has suggested that dark matter might have originated just a few fractions of seconds before the Big Bang.

Even though this new development does not suggest a new connection between particle physics and astronomy, experts believe that this hypothesis will help scientists to search the origin of this mysterious entity.

"The study revealed a new connection between particle physics and astronomy. If dark matter consists of new particles that were born before the Big Bang, they affect the way galaxies are distributed in the sky in a unique way. This connection may be used to reveal their identity and make conclusions about the times before the Big Bang too," said Tommi Tenkanen, a postdoctoral fellow in Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University and the study's lead author, Newsweek reports.

Until now experts believed that dark matter is actually the remnants of Big Bang, but this new research conducted using a mathematical framework, researchers found that dark matter might have formed before Big Bang during an era known as cosmic inflation. It should be noted that the era of cosmic inflation is the time where space was expanding very rapidly.

The research report published in the journal Physical Review Letters stressed that rapid expansion of space resulted in the production of scalar particles, and until now, only one scalar particle has been discovered so far; the Higgs Boson.

"We do not know what dark matter is, but if it has anything to do with any scalar particles, it may be older than the Big Bang. With the proposed mathematical scenario, we don't have to assume new types of interactions between visible and dark matter beyond gravity, which we already know is there," added Tenkanen.

A few weeks back, another study had suggested that more than 95 percent of the universe is made up of a dark fluid with negative mass. The research report revealed that this dark fluid with negative masses is actually a hypothetical form of matter with negative gravity which repels all other materials around them.

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