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'Final parsec problem' that makes supermassive black holes impossible to explain could finally have a solution

Live Science
Summary
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80% Informative

Scientists have been modeling how supermassive black holes form when two smaller black holes merge.

But in their simulations, most pairs of massive black holes get stuck orbiting each other indefinitely.

This has become known as the "final parsec problem" Now, a new study suggests a new way black holes could lose remaining energy: if dark matter is "self-interacting".

When black holes are far apart, gravitational waves radiate very long waves, like widely separated crests of ocean waves.

But measurements from pulsar timing arrays hint that the height of the crests is smaller when they are closer together.

There is no such softening when they use ordinary dark matter, but when the team introduced SIDM instead, the dark matter spike absorbed energy.