{"id":415782,"date":"2026-01-16T00:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415782\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:59:23","slug":"dark-matter-may-have-begun-much-hotter-than-scientists-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415782\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark matter may have begun much hotter than scientists thought"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New dark matter research challenges decades-old theories and sheds light on the early beginnings of the Universe.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Universit\u00e9 Paris-Saclay have discovered that dark matter could have been \u201cincredibly hot\u201d, moving at nearly the speed of light when it was first born.<\/p>\n<p>The research <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/prl\/abstract\/10.1103\/zk9k-nbpj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">provides new clues about the origins of our Universe<\/a> and opens up a broader range of possibilities for dark matter and its interactions with other matter.<\/p>\n<p>Dark matter previously thought to be cold and slow-moving<\/p>\n<p>For decades, researchers believed that dark matter must be cold or slow-moving when it \u201cfreezes out\u201d from the radiation bath in the early Universe.<\/p>\n<p>The team studied dark matter production during an era in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/europes-km3net-neutrino-telescope-hunts-universes-origins\/63764\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Universe\u2019s history<\/a> known as post-inflationary reheating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe simplest dark matter candidate (a low mass neutrino) was ruled out over 40 years ago since it would have wiped out galactic-sized structures instead of seeding them,\u201d said Keith Olive, professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe neutrino became the prime example of hot dark matter, where structure formation relies on cold dark matter. It is amazing that a similar candidate, if produced just as the hot big bang Universe was being created, could have cooled to the point where it would in fact act as cold dark matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cooling before galaxies form<\/p>\n<p>Researchers showed that dark matter can decouple while ultrarelativistic (very hot) and still have time to cool before galaxies begin to form into what we know today.<\/p>\n<p>The key feature that enables this is that dark matter is produced during an era in the early Universe\u2019s history known as reheating.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Henrich, graduate student in the School of Physics and Astronomy and the study\u2019s lead, explained: \u201cDark matter is famously enigmatic. One of the few things we know about it is that it needs to be cold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result, for the past four decades, most researchers have believed that dark matter must be cold when it is born in the primordial universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cOur recent results show that this is not the case; in fact, dark matter can be red hot when it is born, but still has time to cool down before galaxies begin to form.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Discovering the best way to detect particles<\/p>\n<p>The research will continue by determining the best methods to detect these particles either directly using colliders or scattering experiments, or indirectly via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/nasa-telescope-may-reveal-first-direct-evidence-of-dark-matter\/64190\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">astrophysical observations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith our new findings, we may be able to access a period in the history of the Universe very close to the Big Bang,\u201d concluded Yann Mambrini, professor from the Universit\u00e9 Paris-Saclay in France and co-author of the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New dark matter research challenges decades-old theories and sheds light on the early beginnings of the Universe. Researchers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,1984,128],"class_list":["post-415782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-particle-physics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}