Science
Supermassive dark star remnants could explain cosmic gravitational wave signal, study suggests
Colgate University researchers modeled how ancient black hole seeds could contribute to the gravitational wave background detected by pulsar timing arrays.
The short version
- Researchers Sohan Ghodla and Cosmin Ilie modeled early cosmic history to determine if remnants of supermassive dark stars could generate the gravitational wave background measured by pulsar timing arrays.
- The study suggests that if supermassive dark star remnants existed at specific early universe densities, their black hole descendants could provide a primary share of the detected signal.
- The findings establish a potential new framework for using current gravitational wave data to place constraints on how the first supermassive black holes and dark matter evolved.
Key facts
- Colgate University researchers published a study in Physical Review D examining how early supermassive black hole seeds impact the gravitational wave background.[ScienceDaily]
- The researchers evaluated two potential formation pathways for early black hole seeds: direct collapse black holes and the collapse of dark matter-powered supermassive dark stars.[ScienceDaily]
- Calculations showed that dark star remnants at a number density near 10-3 Mpc-3 could generate a large portion of the observed signal, whereas direct collapse black holes near 10-6 Mpc-3 would contribute significantly less.[ScienceDaily]
- The study indicates that seed densities between 10-2 and 10-1 Mpc-3 would produce more gravitational wave background than current pulsar timing array measurements allow.[ScienceDaily]
What remains uncertain
- Supermassive dark stars remain hypothetical primordial objects, and their contribution to the gravitational wave background relies on specific dark matter and seed density modeling assumptions.[ScienceDaily]
Sources
- A mysterious cosmic hum may come from 13-billion-year-old dark starsScienceDaily - Science