Dark matter accounts for about 85 percent of all matter in the universe but scientists are yet to make any direct observation. Dark matter does not interact with the electromagnetic force, it does not emit any visible light and does not reflect any light either. So how do physicists know dark matter exists at all? When astronomers add up all the visible matter in distant galaxies together, there is nowhere near enough matter to explain the galaxies’ gravitational effects. This has led astrophysicists to theorise an invisible, mystery substance – dark matter – glues galaxies together and gives them more mass.
In 1974 Professor Stephen Hawking, who died in March 2018, theorised dark matter could be the remains of primordial black holes.
These black holes would have been born shortly after the Big Bang and in theory, make up a large proportion of dark matter in the universe.
Black holes are an already elusive and hard to pinpoint phenomenon, which until April this year, astronomers have been unable to observe.
But an international team of researchers from the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe have challenged Professor Hawking’s theory.
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The researchers presented their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Nature Astronomy.
The astronomers from Japan, America and India looked for signs of primordial black holes in-between the Earth and Andromeda galaxy using gravitational lensing.
Gravitational lensing is the massive bending of light past sources of intense gravity, as proposed by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Simply put, when a beam of light flies past an object of intense gravity, it will be distorted and bent.
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The astronomers snapped 190 consecutive images of the night sky to determine whether the light travelling from Andromeda galaxy was being distorted on its way to Earth.
If there were any dark matter primordial black holes in the way, the researchers expected to observe around 1,000 flicker events.
Instead, they only observed one such event, which suggests primordial black holes contribute to less than 0.1 percent of dark matter’s mass.
As a result, the researchers have claimed Professor Hawking’s theory does not hold up.
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The Institute said in a statement: “Therefore, it is unlikely the theory is true. The researchers are now planning to further develop their analysis of the Andromeda galaxy
“One new theory they will investigate is to find whether binary black holes discovered by gravitational wave detector LIGO are in fact primordial black holes.”
Particle physicists are currently attempting to hunt down dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.
One theory explaining the presence of dark matter is built from a form of undiscovered particles avoiding all detection.
Another theory, supersymmetry, has proposed dark matter particles mirror those present in the so-called Standard Model.
CERN said: “Dark matter candidates arise frequently in theories that suggest physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry and extra dimensions.
“One theory suggests the existence of a ‘Hidden Valley’, a parallel world made of dark matter having very little in common with matter we know.
“If one of these theories proved to be true, it could help scientists gain a better understanding of the composition of our universe and, in particular, how galaxies hold together.”