Decaying Dark Matter May Have Seeded the Universe's First Supermassive Black Holes

Researchers propose that energy from decaying dark matter could heat primordial gas enough to trigger direct-collapse black holes, potentially seeding the universe's first SMBHs earlier than standard growth models. The idea, spurred by JWST observations of massive black holes within the first billion years, pinpoints a 24–27 eV dark-matter particle as a possible energy source and was published in JCAP on April 14.