Could Early Universe Black Holes Be Dark Matter?

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Artist’s impression of a microlensing event caused by a black hole observed from Earth toward the Large Magellanic Cloud. The light of a background star located in the LMC is bent by a putative primordial black hole (lens) in the Galactic halo and magnified when observed from the Earth. Microlensing causes very characteristic variation of brightness of the background star, enabling the determination of the lens’s mass and distance.
Credit: J. Skowron / OGLE

Could Black Holes Comprise Dark Matter?

https://www.miragenews.com/could-black-holes-comprise-dark-matter-1262067/

By the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Physics

Gravitational wave detectors LIGO and Virgo have discovered massive black holes, suggesting they may form in the early Universe and could be a component of dark matter. However, a 20-year study by the OGLE survey found that such black holes can only comprise a small fraction of dark matter. This conclusion arises from observations of microlensing events in the Large Magellanic Cloud, indicating that other explanations are necessary for the origin of these black holes. The study’s findings, published in Nature and the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, challenge previous theories and highlight the need for alternative hypotheses, such as the evolution of massive stars or mergers in dense stellar environments.

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