Can supermassive black holes be primordial?

Primordial black holes are also good candidates for being the seeds of the supermassive black holes at the center of massive galaxies, as well as of intermediate-mass black holes. Primordial black holes belong to the class of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs).

Are primordial black holes confirmed?

The new evidence that primordial black holes do exist will help astrophysicists hunting for dark matter candidates to sharpen their searches. However, the case for primordial black holes isn’t yet complete.

What evidence suggests that supermassive black holes really exist?

Direct evidence for a supermassive black hole – a plot of the orbital motion of the star S2 around the centre of the Milky Way. From these observations, astronomers have inferred that a supermassive black hole of about 3 million solar masses lurks at the centre of our galaxy.

Are dark matter primordial black holes?

Primordial black holes (PBHs) represent a natural candidate for one of the components of the dark matter (DM) in the Universe.

How long do primordial black holes last?

A black hole of one solar mass ( M ☉ = 2.0×1030 kg) takes more than 1067 years to evaporate—much longer than the current age of the universe at 1.4×1010 years. But for a black hole of 1011 kg, the evaporation time is 2.6×109 years.

How do physicists know dark matter exists?

We can detect the dark matter through gravitational lensing, which detects shifts in light produced by distant celestial objects [5]. The bright spots outside the colored areas are stars and galaxies that are not part of the Bullet Cluster (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/ M.

Where do supermassive black holes come from?

One possible mechanism for the formation of supermassive black holes involves a chain reaction of collisions of stars in compact star clusters that results in the buildup of extremely massive stars, which then collapse to form intermediate-mass black holes.