Does dark matter fall into black holes ?

[John Murrell]

I have just been listening to one of the questions on the September extra Jodcast where the response to a listeners question discussed what happens to dark matter that approaches a Black Hole.

 

The answer rather surprised me but is logical if you think about it.  The response given was that the Dark Matter is bound to have angular momentum. To fall into the Black Hole it needs to lose this angular momentum. However as it does not interact with the material in the accretion disc and does not lose energy via Electro Magnetic energy it is unable to fall into the black hole.

 

Unfortunately the answer did not say what the long term fate of the Dark Matter is – does it just orbit the Black Hole in its own dark matter accretion disc forever ?

 

Interesting topic

 

Regards

 

John