DARK matter may be 鈥渨arm鈥� 鈥� made of fast, lightweight particles 鈥� contrary to the most widely accepted theory.
Liang Gao and Tom Theuns of the University of Durham, UK, modelled the behaviour of candidate dark matter particles, both warm and 鈥渃old鈥� 鈥� made of slow-moving, heavy particles. Cold dark matter coalesces into blobs, they found, while warm dark matter develops chaotically, into filaments. Small, slow-burning stars could form in these filaments, without forming heavy elements, and a few could still be shining (Science, vol 317, p 1527).
That fits with the discovery of ancient small stars in the Milky Way that are very low in heavy elements. 鈥淚t is suggestive that dark matter is warm,鈥� Theuns says.
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