Dark Matter Could Help Solve the Final Parsec Problem of Black Holes

By Brian Koberlein - November 25, 2023 10:58 AM UTC | Black Holes
One outstanding mystery in astrophysics is known as the "final parsec problem." Simulations predict that binary black holes should stall out in the last stages of their merger. Since we're detecting the gravitational waves from these mergers, we know it happens, but how? A new paper proposes that ultralight dark matter near the black holes could help to carry away orbital energy from the black holes, driving them together.
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CERN Has Joined the Search for Dark Photons

By Brian Koberlein - November 21, 2023 03:27 PM UTC | Physics
Now that the Large Hadron Collider has measured the mass of the Higgs boson, physicists are trying to understand how these particles interact with the rest of the Universe. One theory is that decaying Higgs bosons could produce "dark photons," which would only live for about a tenth of a billionth of a second. That doesn't sound like much, but it's long enough to detect "displaced muons," a by-product of the decay that would indicate the presence of dark photons.
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The Universe Can't Hide Behind the Zone of Avoidance Any Longer

By Brian Koberlein - November 18, 2023 01:35 PM UTC | Cosmology
The Solar System sits within the galactic plane, so it was once impossible to look past the core of the Milky Way through countless stars and clogging dust to the distant cosmos. This region was called "The Zone of Avoidance." But those days are over. While visible light is blocked, infrared and radio can pierce through the region, revealing galaxies on the far side of the Milky Way. Astronomers are finding thousands of previously hidden galaxies behind the core.
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