Jill & Cecilie Studio
Pop the kettle on. Sit back and listen to the sounds of water vapor bubbles expanding, collapsing, and colliding. You’ve just performed an experiment that simulates the Big Bang, the beginning of the universe, and you may have solved the mystery of how the universe got its dark matter.
Well, in a way. Because by considering colliding bubbles on a cosmological scale, physicists are finding basis for speculation about the new spark of creation. They say there may have been a second, equally profound moment of transformation in the weeks after the Big Bang. This particle could have produced a giant shadow particle, trillions of times the mass that makes up normal matter, making sense of the mysterious invisible matter that seems to hold galaxies together. maybe.
As fanciful as it may sound, the concept of a “dark” big bang is largely consistent with a quiet revolution already underway. That’s because cosmologists have rewritten what we think of as the standard Big Bang to account for several different “phase transitions.” ”, each leaving its mark on the universe. Moreover, we now have the tools to test this idea by peering into the universe’s earliest moments and untangling the faint ripples created by these profound primordial changes.
If we can find evidence of a dark big bang among them, it would not only change our view of the early universe, but also provide new clues about the nature of dark matter and how we might eventually uncover its true identity. Probably.
We think dark matter exists to solve some astronomical headaches. …
