Does Some Dark Matter Have an Electric Charge?

Evidence for dark matter has been known for some time, and it is expected that it interacts with the familiar luminous matter that we see in the universe in some normal way. Yet, although dark matter seems to account for the fact that galaxies are able to hold together with gravity, it does not behave as normal matter in other respects. It seems to be evident in gravitational lenses, yet we cannot observe it directly. Otherwise dark matter seems to only weakly interact with ordinary matter. A recent scientific study of radio data was interpreted to be evidence for the formation of stars, and further, a signal of interaction between normal and dark matter. The physics of the situation appears tricky though, and a team of scientists has proposed that maybe dark matter actually has a tiny bit of electric charge. This would be remarkable and has some interesting consequences.
Join Tony Darnell and Carol Christian during Afternoon Astronomy Coffee on June 14 at 3PM Eastern time as they discuss with the investigators, Avi Loeb, Cora Dvorkin, and Julian Munoz (Harvard University) this amazing idea and the implications their model has for understanding dark matter and the make up of the universe.
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