It is hypothesized that active galactic nuclei are capable of converting dark matter into high energy protons. Yuri Pavlov and Andrey Grib at the Alexander Friedmann Laboratory for Theoretical Physics in Saint Petersburg hypothesize that dark matter particles are about 15 times heavier than protons, and that they can decay into pairs of heavier virtual particles of a type that interacts with ordinary matter. Near an active galactic nucleus, one of these particles can fall into the black hole, while the other escapes, as described by the Penrose process. Some of those particles will collide with incoming particles; these are very high energy collisions which, according to Pavlov, can form ordinary visible protons with very high energy. Pavlov then claims that evidence of such processes are ultra-high-energy cosmic ray particles.