Dark Matter Balls Help Supernovae to Explode

Abstract

As a solution to the well-known problem that the shock wave potentially responsible for the explosion of a supernova actually tends to stall, we propose a new energy source arising from our model for dark matter. Our earlier model proposed that dark matter should consist of cm-large white dwarf-like objects kept together by a skin separating two different sorts of vacua. These dark matter balls or pearls will collect in the middle of any star throughout its lifetime. At some stage during the development of a supernova the balls will begin to take in neutrons and then other surrounding material. By passing into a ball nucleons fall through a potential of order 10 MeV, causing a severe production of heat - of order 10 foe for a solar mass of material eaten by the balls. The temperature in the iron core will thereby be raised, splitting up the iron into smaller nuclei. This provides a mechanism for reviving the shock wave when it arrives and making the supernova explosion really occur. The onset of the heating due to the dark matter balls would at first stop the collapse of the supernova progenitor. This opens up the possibility of there being {\em two} collapses giving two neutrino outbursts, as apparently seen in the supernova SN1987A - one in Mont Blanc, and one 4 hours 43 minutes later in both IMB and Kamiokande.