I'm no physicist of any kind or anything. But using my own common sense i've always detested the arrogance of mainstream science. Which led me to this place and so i thought i'd contribute with an article i stumpled upon.
Maybe this is valuable information to some of you (incase it's not old news)
sourceThe mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the material in the universe may actually have an electric charge, a new study suggests. If so, it might help explain why astronomers see so few dwarf galaxies in orbit around larger ones.
Dark matter is detected by its tug on light and visible matter, so astrophysicists have largely assumed that it interacts mostly through the force of gravity – and not electromagnetism, for example. Indeed, the leading dark matter candidates, known as weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, are electrically neutral.
But theorists Leonid Chuzhoy and Rocky Kolb of the University of Chicago say it may be time to consider the possibility that dark matter is actually composed of charged massive particles, or CHAMPs. That would mean magnetic fields could push on or deflect dark matter – adding another way for it to interact with the known universe.
The idea for CHAMPs is not new – it was actually discarded more than a decade ago, after underground particle detectors failed to pick up any sign of such candidates.
Now, a new analysis suggests the particles may exist – just not in our galactic neighbourhood. That's because the shape of the Milky Way's magnetic field could prevent CHAMPs from entering the galaxy's disc of stars, where the Earth resides.
'Prematurely rejected'
Any CHAMPs in the disc would have been cast out long ago, slingshotted outwards by the magnetic fields of rapidly expanding supernovae remnants, the team says.
"We have to keep our minds open about what dark matter could be," Kolb told New Scientist. "I think it's a brilliant idea that could have been prematurely rejected."
Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, agrees that it is worth keeping an open mind. "The nature of dark matter is not known, so it's always healthy and important to explore unconventional possibilities," he told New Scientist.
If dark matter is electrically charged, it would be more likely to collide with normal matter. That's because it could couple with ordinary matter through its magnetic fields. Normal matter might also bounce off its electrostatic fields like a billiard ball.
Massive particles
The researchers are currently studying what properties CHAMPs would need to explain dark matter observations.
For example, CHAMPs must bump into normal matter fairly rarely in order to create cosmic displays like the Bullet Cluster and MACS J0025. In these collisions of galaxy clusters, ordinary matter gets jumbled up in the crash but dark matter continues on unimpeded.
Finding CHAMPs may prove tricky. The proposed particles would weigh at least 100,000 times the mass of the proton, too heavy to be created by the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, which is set to start up on Wednesday.
Their weight might also make them difficult to observe in space. Charged particles such as electrons and protons emit radiation when they are accelerated by magnetic fields, but CHAMPs would be too massive to produce much light, says the team.
Still, neutral versions of the particles could be found on Earth, says Chuzhoy. If CHAMPs are negatively charged, they might have bound to iron and other elements to create supermassive varieties that could be detected by their weight. These elements might also absorb and emit telltale X-rays that could be observed by telescopes.
Missing dwarfs
Charged dark matter could help explain some cosmic conundrums.
Because CHAMPs would collide more often with normal matter, they could blast gas from growing dwarf galaxies. This could inhibit star formation and explain why astronomers see so few dwarf galaxies in orbit around the Milky Way and nearby giants.
Since CHAMPs can be accelerated by the magnetic fields in stellar explosions, the particles might also explain why there seems to be less dark matter at the centres of dwarf galaxies than simulations predict.
But Loeb notes that the Milky Way's magnetic field might not prevent CHAMPs from reaching the planet.
That's because charged particles from beyond the galaxy do manage to reach Earth. Mysterious ultra-high energy cosmic rays, for example, appear to enter the Milky Way along 'open' magnetic field lines.
Chuzhoy suggests that some of these cosmic rays could actually be CHAMPs.
Smoothed out
If dark matter is charged, it could have had a drastic effect on the universe soon after the big bang.
When the universe was very dense, particles of light, or photons, smoothed out subtle ripples in ordinary matter. But dark matter is supposed to have remained clumpy after the big bang, creating small pockets of mass that drew in surrounding material to form larger structures such as galaxies.
If photons can collide with CHAMPs, that might make dark matter smooth as well. "You wouldn't be able to make galaxies at later times," Loeb told New Scientist. "[The researchers] have to do more work to make it a viable scenario."
Dark Matter and Energy, expanding, accelerating, oscillating, and multi-verses show how much scientists are willing to depart from Ockham's Razor to hold to a paradigm.
