Tiny black holes may be secretly exploding stars across the Milky Way
Primordial black holes may occasionally pass through white dwarf stars and trigger enormous Type Ia supernova explosions. Researchers found that these events could explain chemical patterns seen in supernova remnants, nearby explosions, and stars across the Milky Way.
Scientists have discovered that primordial black holes, remnants from the universe's earliest moments, may be responsible for triggering Type Ia supernovae in white dwarf stars. Type Ia supernovae are powerful explosions associated with certain kinds of white dwarfs and are believed to be caused by a runaway thermonuclear reaction.
Primordial black holes, also known as PBHs, are hypothetical cosmic entities that could have formed during cosmic inflation. These black holes are believed to have been created during the rapid expansion of the universe shortly after the Big Bang. PBHs are considered possible candidates for dark matter, which makes up around 90% of all matter in the Universe by mass.
Although invisible, dark matter can be detected through its gravitational influence on galaxies and the wider cosmos. The researchers from an international team, led by Shing-Chi Leung from SUNY Polytechnic Institute and The University of Tokyo Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, found that if a primordial black hole passes through a white dwarf, its gravitational pull could induce powerful tidal forces within the star.
This may destabilize the white dwarf, causing it to explode as a Type Ia supernova. The study compared the properties of supernovae produced through this PBH-triggered mechanism to those of known supernovae remnants, standard Type Ia supernovae, nearby supernovae and the chemical composition of stars in the Milky Way. The findings showed that PBH-triggered supernovae closely match the characteristics of observed supernovae and their remnants.
The researchers also examined radioactive isotopes and stable elements to estimate the masses and metallicities of the stars that produced these explosions. The presence of primordial black holes may be essential to explain the chemical abundance patterns observed in stars across the Milky Way. The results suggest that these mysterious entities may have played a role in shaping the chemical evolution of our galaxy through the explosions they triggered.
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