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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Dark Matter Could Have Helped Build the Universe’s First Supermassive Black Holes With The Help Of Loss Cone

The discovery of extremely massive black holes in the early universe has created one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. Scientists have found black holes that existed when the universe was still very young, only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Some of these black holes are already millions or billions of times heavier than the Sun.

The problem is simple: how did they grow so large so quickly?

Traditional ideas suggest that black holes become massive by consuming gas, merging with other black holes, and growing over billions of years. But the early universe did not provide enough time for some of the observed supermassive black holes to reach their enormous sizes through these normal processes.

This has led scientists to explore other possibilities. One interesting idea is that dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most of the matter in the universe, may have helped early black holes grow.

A recent study by Zhang and Mathews investigates whether dark matter capture could have provided an additional growth path for the first supermassive black holes.

The Mystery of Early Black Hole Growth

Supermassive black holes sit at the centers of most large galaxies. In today’s universe, they grow mainly by pulling in gas, consuming stars, and merging with other black holes.

However, observations of very distant galaxies have revealed black holes that are surprisingly massive at extremely early times. These discoveries suggest that either:

  • The first black holes were born much heavier than expected.

  • They grew extremely fast through powerful feeding processes.

  • Some unknown mechanism helped increase their mass.

Scientists have already suggested several possible explanations. Some black holes may have formed from the deaths of massive first-generation stars. Others may have formed directly from huge clouds of gas collapsing under gravity. But another possibility is that invisible dark matter contributed to their growth.

How Dark Matter Could Feed a Black Hole

Dark matter is one of the greatest mysteries in science. It does not produce or reflect light, so we cannot see it directly. However, scientists know it exists because its gravity affects galaxies and the movement of stars.

A black hole located inside a dark matter halo is surrounded by many dark matter particles. In theory, some of these particles could fall into the black hole and increase its mass.

But there is an important challenge.

Dark matter particles usually orbit around the black hole instead of falling directly into it. For a particle to be captured, it must lose enough angular momentum — the motion that keeps it in orbit.

The region containing particles that can fall into the black hole is called the “loss cone.”

The main question researchers wanted to answer was:

Can the loss cone be continuously refilled with new dark matter particles, allowing the black hole to keep growing?

Understanding the Loss-Cone Problem

Imagine a busy highway where only cars entering a special lane can reach a destination. Once all cars in that lane have passed, the road becomes empty unless new cars enter.

The same thing happens near a black hole.

The particles inside the loss cone are quickly captured. After they disappear, the black hole needs a mechanism to bring new particles into that region.

Without this refilling process, dark matter growth slows down dramatically.

Zhang and Mathews created a detailed model to study this process. They used a common dark matter distribution model called an NFW profile, which describes how dark matter is arranged around galaxies.

They calculated how dark matter particles move, how they interact with their environment, and how quickly they can be captured by a growing black hole.

The Role of Primordial Black Holes

One important part of the study focused on primordial black holes (PBHs).

Primordial black holes are hypothetical black holes that may have formed shortly after the Big Bang. Some scientists have suggested they could make up part of dark matter.

Even if PBHs make up only a small fraction of dark matter, they could still influence the environment because they are massive objects.

Their gravitational pull can disturb nearby dark matter particles and change their paths. This disturbance could push more particles into the black hole’s loss cone, increasing the capture rate.

The study found that PBHs can help black holes grow significantly in certain dense environments.

However, this effect depends strongly on the conditions around the black hole.

Growth Is Limited by Dark Matter Supply

One of the most important findings of the study is that dark matter growth cannot continue forever.

At the beginning, a young black hole inside a dense dark matter region may capture particles quickly. But after consuming the available low-angular-momentum particles, the surrounding area becomes depleted.

If nothing brings new particles toward the black hole, the growth rate drops.

This means that earlier calculations that assumed a constant supply of dark matter may have overestimated how much growth is possible.

The researchers compared two situations:

  1. A simple model where the dark matter environment stays unchanged.

  2. A more realistic model where the dark matter distribution changes as particles are captured.

The realistic model showed much slower growth because the dark matter supply gradually runs out.

Can Galaxy Structure Help?

The researchers also studied whether the shape of dark matter halos could improve growth.

Most simple models assume galaxies are perfectly round. However, real galaxies can have irregular shapes. Some have stretched or twisted structures where dark matter particles follow complicated paths.

These unusual orbits could naturally send more particles toward the black hole.

In extreme cases, this could create faster growth.

However, even these conditions have limits. Once the available dark matter reservoir is exhausted, growth slows again.

Testing the Idea in Realistic Cosmic Conditions

To see whether dark matter capture could explain the earliest supermassive black holes, Zhang and Mathews applied their model to a realistic early-universe dark matter halo.

They tested conditions similar to galaxies that existed around redshift 20, when the universe was extremely young.

The result was surprising.

Even with optimistic assumptions about dark matter refilling, the growth was very small.

This suggests that dark matter capture alone probably cannot explain the existence of the earliest giant black holes in normal galaxies.

However, it may still be important in rare environments where dark matter is extremely concentrated and where particle movement constantly refills the loss cone.

A Hidden Growth Path, But Not the Main Solution

The study shows that dark matter can contribute to black-hole growth, but it is unlikely to be the main reason why the first supermassive black holes became so massive.

Instead, dark matter may act as a supporting mechanism in special conditions.

In very dense regions, especially those containing primordial black holes or unusual galaxy structures, dark matter could provide a hidden, radiation-free source of growth before normal gas feeding becomes powerful.

The findings help scientists better understand the limits of dark matter’s role in cosmic evolution. They show that simply having lots of dark matter near a black hole is not enough — the movement and supply of particles are equally important.

The mystery of the first supermassive black holes is still not fully solved. Their rapid appearance likely required a combination of processes, including massive seed formation, gas accretion, mergers, and possibly small contributions from dark matter.

Dark matter may not be the complete answer, but it could be one important piece of the puzzle explaining how the universe created its earliest cosmic giants.

Reference: Brian Zhang, Grant J. Mathews, "Loss-Cone-Limited Dark Matter Accretion onto Early Black Hole Seeds", Arxiv, 2026. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.20964

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