Hidden mirror world or just imagination? Scientist says dark matter comes from this unknown plane!
Recently, a physicist proposed two new ideas that could give a new perspective to the presently known information about dark matter.
Does dark matter come from a '
hidden mirror world
'?
Profumo, a physicist based in the US, published a new
study
on July 8, 2025, in Physical Review D, where he shared an interesting idea that explores the possibility that dark matter comes from a hidden 'shadow world' that mirrors our own. In this shadow world, there could be dark versions of particles like quarks and gluons that stick together to form heavy particles, kind of like the ones that make up atoms in our universe.
In the early days of the universe, these dark particles could have clumped together under gravity to form stable, super-small black holes, or similar objects that wouldn't interact with regular matter or light, but only gravity, which makes them invisible but still capable of shaping the universe. Profumo says this could explain all the dark matter that scientists believe is out there but haven't been able to detect.
This idea builds on the 'mirror matter' theory that's been around for years. It suggests there might be a parallel universe running alongside ours, made up of similar particles and physics, but completely hidden, except for the tiny gravitational effects we can observe (MDPI).
He also gave dark matter theories earlier
A study published in May in Physical Review D by Profumo suggested a completely different idea about where dark matter might come from. He said that it could have been created as radiation from the edge of the universe, specifically during a phase of rapid expansion right after the Big Bang, known as the quasi–de Sitter phase.
This theory applies quantum physics to the fabric of the expanding universe. It proposes that stable dark matter particles could have been 'frozen in' from the heat at the universe's outer horizon, like cosmic leftovers locked in place during expansion. Depending on how the early universe evolved, these particles could have a wide range of masses, from tiny to extremely heavy, close to the Planck scale.
Interestingly, it doesn't require dark matter to interact with anything from the Standard Model of physics
Why are these theories important
According to Phys.org, Profumo says, 'Both mechanisms are highly speculative, but they offer self‑contained and calculable scenarios that don't rely on conventional particle dark matter models, which are increasingly under pressure from null experimental results'.
These ideas don't depend on the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) paradigm, which has not been detected so far, but are based on well-known physics principles that have been extended to new horizons.
Future studies could refine these theories, as even if one or both ideas prove incorrect, they tell how innovative thinking and established physics can combine to challenge our assumptions and bring us closer to solving the dark matter puzzle.
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