International collaboration working onAtacama Cosmological Telescope (ACT), presented the results of an analysis of the distribution of dark matter, covering about a quarter of the sky. The created map confirms Einstein's theory of how massive structures in space grow and bend the propagation of light over the 14 billion years of the life of the universe.
For analysis, the researchers examinedcosmic microwave background or relic radiation. This is an ancient thermal radiation that was formed at the dawn of the formation of the Universe in the era of the primary recombination of hydrogen, approximately 380 thousand years after the Big Bang.
Dark matter distribution map: orange areas show a higher concentration of mass, purple areas show a lower one. Image: ACT Collaboration
Dark matter does not participate in the electromagneticinteraction: it does not emit or absorb photons, and therefore is invisible to traditional methods of observation. But its mass is several times greater than the mass of classical baryonic matter. To find the invisible, researchers are studying how the gravity of dark matter bends the CMB light that propagates through the universe.
The researchers collected data from numerousobservations with the ACT telescope and analyzed the curvature of the CMB. It acts as a backlight, scientists say, to highlight all the matter located between observers and the Big Bang.
An illustration of the curvature of the CMB caused by the gravity of massive objects. Image: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda, Simons Foundation
The observation results show thatThe "lumpyness" of the Universe (concentration of matter), and the rate at which it expands after 14 billion years of evolution, are fully consistent with the predictions of the Standard Cosmological Model (ΛCDM), based on Albert Einstein's theory of gravity.
While earlier studies have pointed to cracks in the standard cosmological model, our results provide new confirmation that our fundamental theory of the universe is correct.
Frank Koo, study co-author
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Cover image: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda / Simons Foundation and the ACT Collaboration