The universe's early days were wild, and scientists are still uncovering its secrets. Did cannibal stars and boson stars really exist?
According to a recent study by researchers at SISSA, these exotic objects might have been the universe's first stars. Imagine clusters of massive particles, heavier than anything we know today, forming these strange stars mere seconds after the Big Bang. And here's the twist: these stars could have then given birth to primordial black holes, all before the first atoms were even formed.
The key to this theory is the early matter-dominated (EMD) epoch, a proposed period right after the Big Bang when exotic particles reigned supreme. These particles, predicted by string theory, could have formed dense haloes that collapsed into cannibal stars and boson stars. But what are these mysterious stars?
Cannibal stars are like cosmic furnaces, fueled by particles annihilating each other. This process generates immense heat, with temperatures reaching up to 10^10 GeV, far hotter than our Sun. Yet, these stars emit no light, as their particles are trapped in a quantum dance of annihilation. And boson stars? They're even more peculiar, made from a Bose-Einstein condensate, where particles act as one.
But here's where it gets controversial: these ancient stars could have quickly transformed into primordial black holes, with masses similar to asteroids. And the researchers suggest this could have happened just 10 seconds after the Big Bang! Even more intriguing, the total mass of these black holes could account for the universe's dark matter.
However, not everyone agrees. Dark matter researcher Richard Massey argues that while these black holes might exist, it's unlikely they constitute dark matter. He suggests that their mass would need to be finely tuned, and they'd have to be created uniformly across the universe.
The debate continues, and upcoming experiments like the Roman Space Telescope will shed light on these mysteries. And who knows, maybe cannibal and boson stars are still out there, lurking in the dark matter haloes, waiting to be discovered. The universe might have more secrets to reveal, and these ancient stars could be the key to unlocking them.
