Physics, University of California Los Angeles has proposed a new theory of how you could form the first black holes of the Universe and what role they could play in the production of heavy elements such as gold, platinum and uranium.
The work was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Astrophysicists have long puzzled over the question, when did the first black holes in the Universe – after less than a second after the Big Bang, or millions of years later, when he died the first star.
Alexander Kusenko, Professor of physics, University of California, Los Angeles, and Eric Cotner, post-graduate student of the University, have developed a fairly simple theory, from which it follows that black holes could have formed shortly after the Big Bang, long before the Shine of the first star. Astronomers previously speculated that these so-called primary black holes can explain all or part of the mysterious dark matter and that they could also seed the formation of supermassive black holes that reside in the centers of galaxies. A new theory suggests that the primary black holes could help in the creation of many of the heavier elements found in nature.
The researchers began with the consideration of the homogeneous field energy penetrating the Universe immediately after the Big Bang. Scientists expect that such a field existed in the distant past. After the universe expanded rapidly, this energy field has komkovatost. Gravity caused these clumps to meet and to unite. Researchers from Los Angeles suggested that a small proportion of these growing clumps were dense enough to become black holes.
Their hypothesis is quite generalized, says Kusenko, and does not rely on, as he put it, “unlikely coincidence” that underlie other theories explaining primary black holes.
From the work it follows that these primary black holes can be found by using astronomical observations. One method involves measuring tiny changes in the brightness of stars, which are the result of gravitational effects of the primary black hole between Earth and this star. Earlier this year American and Japanese astronomers have published an article about the opening of one star in a neighboring galaxy, which glimmered brighter and dimmer as if it were a primordial black hole.
In a separate study, Kosenko, Vladimir Takhistov and George fuller suggested that the initial black holes can play an important role in the formation of heavy elements such as gold, silver, platinum and uranium. The origin of these heavy elements has long been a mystery to researchers.
“Scientists know that these heavy elements exist, but are not sure where they formiruetsya,” says Kusenko. “Awkward work”.
Research at the University of California show that a primordial black hole periodically faces a neutron star – a rapidly spinning remnant of a star of small size after the supernova explosion – and sucks it into himself.
When this happens, says Kusenko, the primary a black hole absorbs a neutron star inside for about 10,000 years. As soon as the neutron star shrinks, it begins to rotate faster and faster, until, finally, small fragments of it will separate and not fly away. These fragments are rich in neutrons of the material and can be sources in which neutrons are synthesized more and more heavy elements, says Kusenko.
However, the probability that the neutron star will capture a black hole, quite low, says Kusenko, which is consistent with observations of some galaxies, enriched with heavy elements. The theory that the primary black holes are colliding with neutron stars creating heavy elements, also explains the observed lack of neutron stars in the center of the milky Way galaxy, the long-standing mystery of astrophysics.
This winter, Kusenko and his colleagues will work with scientists at Princeton University on computer simulation of heavy elements produced in the interaction of black holes and neutron stars. Comparing the results of this simulation with observations of heavy elements in nearby galaxies, scientists hope to determine whether the primary black holes are responsible for the appearance of gold, platinum and uranium on Earth.
Physicists have proposed a new theory about black holes from the early Universe
Ilya Hel