Primordial Black Holes and Colour Charge Could Unlock Dark Matter Mysteries

Photo byPhoto by Martin Martz on Unsplash

Researchers at MIT have proposed a new theory about the origins of dark matter, suggesting that primordial black holes from the early universe could account for the unseen matter that exerts gravitational influence on visible objects. These primordial black holes formed within the first quintillionth of a second after the Big Bang would have been significantly smaller than today's black holes, potentially as small as atoms.

The researchers have discovered that these primordial black holes might have had an extraordinary property known as "colour charge," a nuclear physics characteristic that involves quarks and gluons, the building blocks of protons and neutrons. This colour charge would have been absorbed from the early universe's quark-gluon plasma, a sweltering and dense state that existed shortly after the Big Bang.

Their study indicates that the primordial black holes could have contained very high amounts of colour charge, a feature that might have influenced the formation of the universe's first atomic nuclei. This influence could leave detectable imprints in the form of subtle cosmic signals, which could potentially be observed with future measurements.

The team also explored the distribution and properties of these primordial black holes, finding that while most would have been relatively neutral in colour charge, the smallest ones—"super-charged" black holes—would have contained the maximum allowed colour charge. These tiny black holes would have evaporated rapidly but might have played a significant role in cosmic history, possibly affecting the formation of early nuclei and influencing dark matter as we understand it today.

This research opens new avenues for detecting dark matter and understanding the universe's early conditions, providing a novel perspective on the role of primordial black holes and their potential impact on cosmic evolution.