The search for a hypothetical subatomic particle that could signal new physics just narrowed a bit — thanks to the light swirling around a gargantuan black hole in another galaxy.
The lightweight particle — dubbed the axion — has been proposed as a solution to the mystery of why the universe has so little antimatter and as a candidate for the elusive dark matter that fills the cosmos (SN: 3/24/20; SN: 3/6/20). The twisting and chaotic environs of galaxy M87’s central black hole, the first black hole to have its picture taken, are thought to encode information about such particles.
Now, the particulars of how light around M87’s black hole is oriented could rule out the likelihood of axion particles in a specific mass range, researchers report March 17 in Nature Astronomy. This study also shows that scientists could use a similar method in upcoming astrophysical observations to search for these particles in an assortment of masses.
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