Dark Matter’s Pre-Big Bang Origins
In a revolutionary finding, physicists propose a scenario where dark matter, the invisible substance making up roughly 80% of the universe’s mass, predates the Big Bang itself. This theory challenges our understanding of the cosmos’s origins and revolutionizes our conceptualization of dark matter.
"Imagine dark matter existing before the birth of time and space," says Katherine Freese, lead author and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, emphasizing the radical nature of this hypothesis, "This is a concept that truly pushes the boundaries of what we thought we knew."
Typical theories suggest dark matter forms after the universe’s expansion. This new model dubbed WIFI (Warm Inflation via ultraviolet Freeze-In), suggests dark matter emerged during inflation – a period of super accelerated expansion preceding the Big Bang.
Scientists propose that during this period of rapid expansion, some energy transformed into particles analogous to how light shines. In this scenario
