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GW190728 Merger Signals Dark-Matter Cloud, MIT Study Finds

5/27/2026

Summary

Story summary

MIT postdoctoral researcher Josu C. Aurrekoetxea and collaborators found the GW190728 merger fits a dark-matter cloud better than empty space.
Using a fast waveform model on 28 clean LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA black-hole mergers, they saw 27 events match vacuum, setting an upper limit on surrounding dark-matter density.
GW190728 data favored the dark-matter scenario over vacuum by roughly 30 to 1, suggesting an ultralight particle near 10?¹² eV in a ~20-solar-mass black-hole merger.

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Story summary

MIT postdoctoral researcher Josu C. Aurrekoetxea and collaborators found the GW190728 merger fits a dark-matter cloud better than empty space.
Using a fast waveform model on 28 clean LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA black-hole mergers, they saw 27 events match vacuum, setting an upper limit on surrounding dark-matter density.
GW190728 data favored the dark-matter scenario over vacuum by roughly 30 to 1, suggesting an ultralight particle near 10?¹² eV in a ~20-solar-mass black-hole merger.