An international group of physics scientists has proposed a very unusual addition to the existing theory of dark matter. The work of this group was published in the journal Physical Review Letters, and it describes that dark matter is transformed ordinary matter, and clusters of dark matter can act as a kind of catalyst, accelerating the transformation of ordinary matter particles into dark matter particles.
We remind our readers that the existence of dark matter was proposed at one time by scientists as an explanation for some inconsistencies observed in various astrophysical phenomena. One of such inconsistencies is the gravitational forces of galaxies and galactic clusters, which are too large and cannot be explained in terms of the amount of ordinary visible matter contained in these astronomical objects.
Since the acceptance of the dark matter theory by the scientific community, a number of other questions have arisen that scientists continue to seek answers to. And one of those questions is the question of the original source of dark matter and the processes that allowed dark matter to accumulate in the current universe in large enough quantities.
Theoretical physicists believe that originally dark matter arose as a result of complex processes in the environment of the so-called “heat bath,” in the volume of primordial plasma composed of ordinary matter. However, the amount of dark matter generated in this way must be small and it does not correspond at all to the situation observed today in the depths of the Universe.
And here comes into play the aforementioned addition to the theory, according to which dark matter particles are a catalyst that promotes the transformation of other particles of ordinary matter into dark matter, which, in turn, also begin to promote further transformations.
Such a process must have an avalanche-like nature, and the only thing that prevents the rapid transition of absolutely all ordinary matter to the “dark side” is the accelerating expansion of the Universe. The expansion of the Universe significantly reduces the probability of collision of dark and ordinary matter particles, which slows down the conversion process and makes the total amount of dark matter practically unchanged.
Scientists have already managed to build a theoretical mathematical model, the data of which are quite close to the data on the amount of dark matter obtained by observing the depths of the Universe. Moreover, scientists believe that this theory can be tested experimentally; if it is correct, then the picture of the cosmic radiation background radiation must contain a characteristic “imprint”, and now scientists only have to try to find it.
