Earlier this year, researchers using data from Kitt Peak National Observatory found that dark energy evolves with time.
A new study co-authored by ASU researchers has reproduced those findings and examines how black holes may be tied to dark energy.
The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Dark energy is the term scientists use for the driver of that expansion, but what it is still eludes astronomers.
Black holes grow bigger when they consume gas and stars. But some modeling shows they might be able to grow without consuming matter due to something called “cosmological coupling.”
This is where dark energy comes in.
The new paper found the amount of dark energy in the universe increased as more black holes were formed.
“They talk to the universe as they're forming, right? Because you're converting matter into this energized vacuum. This dark energy state. There's like physics happening," ASU professor Kevin Croker said.
Croker said the instrument has allowed the team to make the most precise measurements yet to research these questions.
"How fast you’re making stars should be related to how fast you're making black holes, which should then be how fast are you piling up dark energy. And so that's the hypothesis we looked into." he said.
The study was published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
