Constraints on a hypothetical population of primordial supermassive electrically charged compact objects—astrons—are analyzed. The generation and saturation of charge, its preservation in an ionized medium, screening by intergalactic plasma, Reissner-Nordström geometry for strongly charged bodies, lensing and cosmological consequences are considered. It is shown that standard accretion charging yields values far below the phenomenological benchmark, plasma screening poses a serious problem, and a large charge can drive the exterior metric into a super-extreme regime. The interaction energy of uniformly distributed astrons scales as a^(-4), so in the simplest hydrodynamic approximation they do not produce late-time acceleration; any acceleration epoch associated with them could only be temporary. A possible connection with the early structures discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope is discussed: if astrons are related to them, it is likely as primordial dark seeds rather than luminous objects. The astron scenario is tightly constrained and requires consideration of plasma physics and cosmological approaches beyond the homogeneous approximation.
The problem of dark energy driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and the mystery of dark matter remain central challenges of modern cosmology. In search of an alternative to the hypothetical cosmological constant, scientists turn to the idea that primordial black holes or other compact objects might carry a macroscopic electric charge. Such objects — astrons — could, through electrostatic repulsion, influence the dynamics of the cosmos. However, to assess the viability of the scenario, one must go through a chain of rigorous physical tests.
The authors combined several theoretical strands. First, they considered how charge can accumulate during accretion of matter and what the natural saturation point is. Then they analyzed plasma screening in the intergalactic medium — a key factor that can suppress long-range interactions. The geometry of curved spacetime was described by the Reissner–Nordström solution, which generalizes the Schwarzschild metric to the charged case within the framework of Maxwell electrodynamics. The cosmological part included an analysis of the homogeneous Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker model and the conclusion that inhomogeneous backreaction must be taken into account.
It turned out that with ordinary accretion, the charge saturates at a level giving the dimensionless parameter Ξ = k_e Q^2/(G M^2) much less than unity, whereas the phenomenologically interesting scale requires Ξ ≈ 5.4. This pushes the exterior geometry into a super-extreme regime: for Ξ > 1 the event horizon disappears, and for Ξ > 9/8 — the photon sphere as well, drastically altering gravitational lensing. The plasma environment can screen the field on scales smaller than the distance between objects, eliminating collective effects. In a homogeneous cosmological description, the Coulomb energy density behaves as a^{-4}, i.e., like radiation, rather than as dark energy. Finally, if astrons have a mass of ~10^12 M_⊙ and are spaced at 1 Mpc, their abundance in rest mass Ω_A ≈ 7.9 exceeds the critical density, so the real population would have to be even sparser.
Thus, astrons cannot be directly modeled as a homogeneous fluid replacing the cosmological constant. Any acceleration of expansion must be the result of the backreaction of the inhomogeneous spacetime structure on large-scale dynamics. This shifts the problem from phenomenology to precise calculations within the framework of the Einstein–Maxwell equations.
Further development of the topic will require the use of numerical simulations for nonlinear plasma processes near supercharged objects and for solving the averaging problem in an inhomogeneous Universe. Of particular interest is the search for observational signatures of super-extreme compact bodies in JWST data and with future telescopes.
The results are important for several areas: dark matter physics, early-Universe cosmology, plasma astrophysics, and studies of strong gravitational fields.
Immediate next steps include a detailed kinetic analysis of plasma screening and the first full-fledged calculations of backreaction in a discrete system of charged sources.
The astron scenario touches upon unresolved questions in physics: the nature of dark energy, the possibility of naked singularities (violating cosmic censorship), the horizon problem, and the connection between quantum gravity and classical singularities.
🎯 If an astron with Ξ=5.4 were nearby, we wouldn't see the typical “shadow” of a black hole — it lacks a photon sphere, and light would just be weakly deflected by its mass.