Dark matter made of axions could have the power to ring spacetime like a bell, but only if it is able to steal energy from black holes, new research suggests.
One intriguing possibility for a mysterious dark matter candidate is that it could be an axion. The existence of axions was originally predicted decades ago to explain some strange properties of the strong nuclear force. However, they have not yet been discovered in the laboratory or in experiments. However, this volatility would make them perfect candidates for dark matter, since dark matter, by definition, rarely if ever interacts with normal matter.
If dark matter were an axion or some kind of particle related to the axion, then it would have very strange properties. It would be the lightest particle ever known, in some models no larger than a billionth of the mass of the electron. The incredible lightness of this particle means that it would behave in very strange ways in the cosmos. It would be so light that its quantum wave nature would manifest itself on very large scales, meaning it would act more like a wave than a particle.
This wave nature would manifest itself, among other things, in the environment of rotating black holes. Through a process known as superradiation, this type of dark matter could steal angular momentum from the black hole. This would prevent the dark matter from falling through the event horizon, but would instead pile up around the black hole like an invisible shell.
But as soon as no more new energy could be extracted from the black hole, the dark matter would evaporate. According to new research, dark matter would ring space-time like a bell and emit an enormous amount of gravitational waves.
These gravitational waves would have a different signature than those known from black hole mergers. And even if they were much weaker, they would be in the frequency range that can be detected by existing and planned gravitational wave observatories.
The researchers suggested that we comb through existing data to look for possible signatures of this type of dark matter that accumulates around black holes. And if we don't find what we're looking for, we can further refine future experiments to look for this surprising signal.
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