A strange cluster of stars orbiting the violent center of the Milky Way could become “immortal” by constantly capturing and destroying dark matter particles in their cores, a new study suggests.
Using computer simulations of the evolution of stars, researchers found that dark matter Particles attracted by the gravity of these stars may repeatedly collide with each other and “annihilate” each other within the star, turning into ordinary particles while releasing a significant amount of energy.
The researchers suggest that this extra source of energy could maintain the star’s stability, potentially making it immortal, even after its regular source of nuclear fuel runs out.
“Stars burn hydrogen Nuclear fuelLead author of the study Isabel Johna doctoral candidate in astroparticle physics at Stockholm University, told Live Science via email. “The outward pressure from this inward pressure balances the gravitational forces and keeps the stars in a stable equilibrium.”
However, many stars appear to be visible near the Milky Way’s central black hole Much younger than stellar evolution theories predict. To investigate this mystery, the researchers tested whether stars could absorb energy from the abundant supply of dark matter thought to exist in the galactic center.
Our simulations show that if stars can accumulate large amounts of dark matter, which is destroyed inside the star, this can create a similar outward pressure and stabilize the star due to dark matter destruction rather than nuclear fusion – so stars can Use as dark matter. John said: fuel instead of hydrogen. “The important difference is that stars use up their hydrogen, which eventually kills them. Stars, on the other hand, can continuously collect dark matter.”
study, Published on the arXiv preprint server In May, it has not yet been reviewed.
Stars that defy theory
Stellar evolution is a well-studied topic. The relationships between the age, luminosity, size and temperature of a star have been obtained with high accuracy with both theoretical and astronomical data. However, recent observations have shown that the properties of stars close to the center Milky Way Challenges the accepted theory of stellar evolution.
Related: Small stars that defy explanation are swarming “like bees” around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole.
The innermost stars in our galaxy, the S cluster stars, exhibit a number of characteristics [are] It’s not found anywhere else: it’s not clear how they got so close to the center, which is thought to be a relatively hostile environment for star formation. The stars had moved there from somewhere else. “In addition, there appear to be unexpectedly many massive stars.”
These strange properties of S cluster stars can be explained by the presence of an additional source of energy in them. For example, this extra energy source could allow the star to burn hydrogen — the usual energy source — at a slower rate, causing it to age and appear younger than it really is.
In his recent study, John, along with Tim Linden Stockholm University and Rebecca Kay Lane from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, suggested that this source could be the destruction of dark matter particles. This explanation is consistent with the fact that larger amounts of dark matter are believed to lurk in the center of the galaxy, right where the strange stars have been observed.
“Throughout the Milky Way, the density of dark matter is not high enough to affect the stars,” John said. But in the galactic center, the amount of dark matter is enormous, potentially several billion times above the ground“
Virtual destruction
To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted computer simulations of the life cycle of a star surrounded by a dark matter supermass with a density consistent with the galactic center. They hypothesized that dark matter consists of weakly interacting heavy particles, one of the early candidates for the components of dark matter.
Since dark matter particles have not yet been found in laboratory experiments, the strength of their interactions with ordinary matter and the rate at which they annihilate each other are unknown. But the study showed that for certain values of these values, a dark matter-based energy production mechanism fully explains the observed properties of S-cluster stars.
However, to confirm their explanation, the authors believe that more stars should be discovered near the galactic center. Furthermore, more precise measurements of known stellar parameters should be made to reliably compare observations with theoretical predictions. According to the researchers, we hope that such observations will be possible in the near future using the Very Large Telescope in Chile or the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
“More detailed observations of S-cluster stars will give us more information about these stars and the processes going on,” John said. This will indicate whether the observations are consistent with our simulations or whether other explanations for their unusual features become more favorable.
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