Pulsar Timing Array tagged posts

Astrophysicists Uncover Supermassive Black Hole/Dark Matter Connection in Solving the ‘Final Parsec Problem’

Astrophysicists uncover supermassive blackhole/dark matter connection in solving the 'final parsec problem'
Simulation of the light emitted by a supermassive black hole binary system where the surrounding gas is optically thin (transparent). Viewed from 0 degrees inclination, or directly above the plane of the disk. The emitted light represents all wavelengths. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Noble; simulation data, d’Ascoli et al. 2018

Researchers have found a link between some of the largest and smallest objects in the cosmos: supermassive black holes and dark matter particles.

Their new calculations reveal that pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can merge into a single larger black hole because of previously overlooked behavior of dark matter particles, proposing a solution to the longstanding “final parsec problem” in astronomy.

The research is described in ...

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