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Lehman Physicist Says Hidden Black Holes May Explain Dark Matter—And an Odd Neutrino
An artist's rendering of 5D black holes (credit: NASA)
October 16, 2025
A team that includes Luis Anchordoqui, physics professor at Lehman College and the CUNY Graduate Center, has proposed a bold theory that could explain two major space mysteries: dark matter and an ultra-high-energy neutrino detected in February 2023. Their study connects real detector data with theories about extra dimensions and outlines how future observations could test the idea.
In their paper, “Neutrinos from Primordial Black Holes in Theories with Extra Dimensions,” published in Physical Review D, Anchordoqui and coauthors Francis Halzen (IceCube Neutrino Observatory) and Dieter Lüst (Max Planck Institute) suggest that tiny, ancient black holes—formed just after the Big Bang—could be the source of both dark matter and the mysterious 2023 neutrino.
Neutrinos are nearly invisible subatomic particles that rarely interact with matter. The "fifth dimension" in the team’s theory refers to a hidden direction in space—beyond length, width, and depth—about one micron thick (a human hair is roughly 70 microns wide). This extra dimension was previously proposed by physicists Miguel Montero, Cumrun Vafa, and Irene Valenzuela.
Unlike the massive black holes formed from collapsing stars, these “primordial” black holes would be less than a micron wide and small enough to extend into the extra dimension. They could have survived billions of years by slowly evaporating and releasing low-energy particles, including “sterile” neutrinos that slip undetected into the extra dimension.
As these black holes contract and heat up near the end of their life, sterile neutrinos may transform into “active” neutrinos—energetic enough to be detected on Earth. This process could explain the rare, high-energy neutrino event observed in 2023.
Anchordoqui describes the theory as a “single key that might unlock several doors,” linking dark matter, extra dimensions, and quantum gravity. Importantly, the theory is testable: future neutrino detections could support or challenge the idea.
A new detector project, scheduled to launch by high-altitude balloon in 2027 and involving Lehman graduate student Karem Peñaló Castillo, will help gather more data to explore these possibilities.