Relic Black Holes From a Pre-Big-Bang Universe Could Be Dark Matter
A new idea suggests relic black holes formed before the Big Bang could survive a cosmic bounce and constitute dark matter, offering an alternative to particle candidates. The model replaces the Big Bang with a quantum bounce, allowing two pathways for relics: direct survival through the bounce or formation during contraction that later collapses into black holes. If valid, these relics could also explain early JWST observations of massive seeds and connect to gravitational waves and other cosmological signals, though the idea must be tested against data from CMB, galaxy surveys, and GW backgrounds.
