Dark Matter may carry Electric Charge as per the new data, stunning the Scientists

Dark Matter may carry Electric Charge, dark matter, matter, electric charge

Earlier scientists found about the dark matter, a theorized form of matter which to believed to make approximately a quarter of its total energy density and about 80 percent of the matter in the universe. But it does not interact with light at all. Dark matter has made its presence only through gravity, from a new study it is found that dark matter can have Electric charge. Earlier, no one ever thought that dark matter could have any kind of electric charge but now scientists are finding the possibility that it might have a small electric charge that’s why they are capable of interacting with the matter via electromagnetic force.

Now astrophysics Julian Munoz and Abraham Loeb of Harvard University suggests that the small fraction of dark matter could have an electric charge.

“You’ve heard of electric cars and e-books, but now we are talking about the electric dark matter,” said Julian Munoz of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass; who led the study that has been published in the journal Nature. “However, this electric charge is on the very smallest of scales.”

Munoz and his collaborator, Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, investigate the possibility that these dark matter particles with electric charge interact with the matter through the electromagnetic force. They took inspiration from the previous researchers to find out whether dark matter particles have an electric charge or not.

Research from the Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signature (EDGES), a collaborative research project located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Australia. In February, scientists from this project said that they had detected the radio signal from the first generation of stars, and also a possible evidence for interaction between dark matter and normal matter But some of the astronomers quickly challenged the EDGES claim. Meanwhile, Munoz and Loeb were already looking at the theoretical basis underlying it.

“We’re able to tell a fundamental physics story with our research no matter how you interpret the EDGES result,” said Loeb, who is the chair of the Harvard astronomy department. “The nature of dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science and we need to use any related new data to tackle it.” And none expected that new Research will bang their previous understanding by suggesting that dark matter carries an electric charge.

According to the studies the first stars which emitted the ultraviolet rays, their Ultraviolet light interacts with the cold hydrogen atoms in gas which are lying between the stars and help them to absorb the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, which is the leftover radiation from the big bang.

During this period the absorption should have led to a drop in the intensity of CMB, which occurs less than 200 million years after the big bang. the EDGES team claimed that they have found the evidence for the absorption of CMB light through this but this has yet to be verified by other scientists. However from the data proposed by EDGES the value of the hydrogen gas is half of the expected value.

Munoz and Loeb interpreted these results, mainly the change in the temperature of hydrogen gas, as it can be a possible strong evidence for interaction between the dark matter and normal matter.

“If EDGES has detected cooler than expected hydrogen gas during this period, what could explain it?” said Munoz. “One possibility is that hydrogen was cooled by the dark matter.” Which requires dark matter to possess some electric charge.

During the time when CNB radiation is being absorbed, any free electrons or protons associated with the ordinary matter would have been moving at their possible slowest speeds as later on, they were going to be heated by the x rays from the first black holes. Scattering of charged particles at place maximum at low speed.

Therefore any interaction found between normal matter and dark matter at this time would have been the strongest if some of the dark matter particles have an electric charge. This interaction causes the hydrogen gas to cool because the dark matter is cold, it leaves an observational signal like that claimed by the EDGES project.

“We are constraining the possibility that dark matter particles carry a tiny electrical charge – equal to one millionth that of an electron – through measurable signals from the cosmic dawn,” said Loeb. “Such tiny charges are impossible to observe even with the largest particle accelerators.”

Also, the team has no evidence to prove this theory because it is impossible to observe these tiny charges even with the help of large particle accelerators

Munoz and Loeb also explained that normal matter has been moving slowly at the early time of universe and charged particle when move slowly scatters easily. So if some of the dark matter possess electric charge then normal matter and dark matter would have been interacting strongly. And these interactions will let the hydrogen gas atoms to cool down. all this information is able to explain the low temperatures found in EDGES data

Loeb expressed in the statement, “We’re able to tell a fundamental physics story with our research no matter how you interpret the EDGES result. The nature of dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science, and we need to use any related new data to tackle it”.

Only the small amounts of dark matter with weak electric charge can both justify with the EDGES data and avoid arguments with other observations. These particles would have been deflected away from the regions close to our galaxy if most of the dark matter carries an electric charge. This conflict with the observations proves that a large amount of dark matter is closely located to the disk of the milky way.

From the observations of the CMB, scientists found out that the protons and electrons combine in the early universe to form neutral atoms. a small fraction of these charged particles remained free.

Munoz and Loeb are considering the chances that dark matter may have also acted in this way. The data from EDGES and other similar experiments might be the only way to detect the Electrically charged particle.

“The viable parameter space for this scenario is quite constrained, but if confirmed by future observations, of course, we would be learning something fundamental about the nature of dark matter, one of the biggest puzzles that we have in physics today,” said Harvard’s Cora Dvorkin who was not involved with the new study. While not just fundamentals, the dark matter will unfold most of the new dimensions of studies to be carried out, or very simple explanations to all our queries. The claim that Dark matter may carry electric charge surely contradicts its earlier definition and understanding, but it avails rectification of the concept as well. That’s what science is all about.