Tiny Dark-Matter Bursts May Kickstart the Universe’s First Supermassive Black Holes
A new study proposes that tiny energy bursts from decaying dark matter in the early universe could nudge pristine hydrogen gas clouds to collapse faster, facilitating direct-collapse black holes and potentially explaining the unexpectedly early appearance of supermassive black holes seen by JWST. The model highlights axion-like particles in the 24–27 eV range as the right environment to enable rapid formation.
