Black holes that transform matter into dark energy could solve 'cosmic hiccups' mystery

By Robert Lea published
17 hours ago

'This is so cool!'



An illustration of dark energy swirling around a black hole (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva))


In a new study, scientists began pondering a pretty wild question: What if black holes can convert dead star matter into dark energy, the mystery force driving the acceleration of the expansion of the universe? If so, then it just might explain a multitude of "hiccups" in our models of the universe.

This new theory proposes that black holes could actually be tiny "bubbles" of dark energy. This involves the conversion of matter into dark energy because black holes are born when massive stars collapse after exhausting their fuel for nuclear fusion. Thus, if this "cosmologically coupled black hole (CCBH)" hypothesis is correct, the transformation of a massive stellar core to a black hole represents the conversion of stellar matter to dark energy.

The team behind this suggestion was inspired by recent results emerging from Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that suggest the strength of dark energy, which accounts for around 68% of the universe's matter and energy budget, is changing over time. This contradicts our current best model of the universe, the standard model of cosmology, or the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model, which suggests that the strength of dark energy should be constant.

"Historically, this is the way physics is done. You come up with as many ideas as you can and you shoot them down as fast as you can," DESI researcher and Boston University researcher Steve Ahlen said in a statement. "You don't shy away from ideas that are new and different, which is clearly what we need to come up with these days when there are so many mysteries."

More:
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes-that-transform-matter-into-dark-energy-could-solve-cosmic-hiccups-mystery