How much of a charge excess would be needed in the universe to produce detectable non-gravitational motions?

The ratio of the electromagnetic force to the gravitational force between a proton (M) and an electron (m) is just

          2
       K e       G M m
      ------  =  ------
         2          2
        R          R

or
          2
       K e    = G M m

so     
                     2
          42        K e
        10     = ------
                  G M m

approximately. In terms of the densities of these particles in the universe, N and Rho,

          2  2           2
       K e  N  =   G Rho

-29 so that for a cosmological density of matter of 10 gm/cc you get
              -24
      N  =  10     protons/cc
But the cosmological density of matter divided by the mass of a proton is just 10^-5 atoms/cc with is 10^19 times higher than the density needed in charges so that the electrostatic forces contribute as much as the gravitational forces between particles. So, this means that if in 10^19 atoms in the universe, you have exactly 1 unit of charge ( 1 electronic charge), the net effect as an electrostatic force equals the gravitational force from these 10^19 atoms! That's how close we have to be to exact neutrality in the universe before non-gravitational forces predominate!

In fact, no non-gravitational forces have ever been confirmed in the dynamics of galaxies or galaxy clusters, so we know that, on average, matter in the cosmos has even less net charge than 1: 10^19.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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