Could dark matter behave like waves? Study proposes new hypothesis
Scientists have been looking for ways to detect one of the greatest cosmic mysteries: dark matter, which makes up 85 percent of the total mass of the universe.
However, detecting it has proven to be a major challenge. So far, experts have been able to infer the existence of dark matter in mostly indirect ways. For instance, the way dark matter exerts gravitational influence on visible stuff.
New research proposes that perturbation in binary star systems could be key to detecting this elusive matter. A binary star system is one in which two stars orbit the same center of mass due to gravitational attraction.
Ultralight dark matter
As per Live Science, some models have predicted that elusive particles that make up dark matter could be billions of times lighter than electrons, behaving more like waves at cosmic scales.
A team of astronomers in China went on to explore this model to understand how ultralight dark matter may influence the binary star systems found in our Milky Way galaxy. This, in turn, could open up ways to detect this light form of dark matter.
Scientists hypothesize that this light type of dark matter would act like a wave sloshing through the galaxies. This wave-like motion could trigger oscillations that, under certain conditions, might combine to form a cohesive group traveling together. This combined force is referred to as a soliton.
These invisible solitons, like giant waves of matter, have the potential to subtly influence their immediate gravitational environment through which the waves are passing.
“An analytic calculation is given for binary star evaporation under the tidal perturbation from randomly distributed, spatially extended dark objects. In particular, the Milky Way’s wide binary star population are susceptible to such disruption from dark matter solitons of comparable and larger sizes,” the authors wrote in the research paper, which is yet to be published in a journal.
Binary star systems with large gaps
The study proposes that the possible impacts of dark matter solitons on binary star systems could be identified in those with especially large separations. Reportedly, this large gap may make them more sensitive to gravitational disturbances from external sources like dark matter solitons.
While the gravitational pull of solitons is often mild and has no meaningful effect on the majority of the galaxy, it may still have a detectable influence on binary systems that are far apart.
In this case, the stars are already only weakly bound to each other; therefore, the existence of solitons might cause orbital changes.
Therefore, the study proposes using wide binary star systems as natural laboratories to detect the elusive dark matter.
The team used data from the GAIA EDR3 (Gaia Early Data Release 3) to identify wide binary star systems in our galaxy with separations larger than 0.1 parsecs.
“We identify high-probability ‘halo-like’ wide binaries in GAIA EDR3 with separations larger than 0.1 parsec. Survival of the farthest-separated candidates will provide a novel gravitational probe to dark matter in the form of solitons,” the research paper noted.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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Could dark matter behave like waves? Study proposes new hypothesis