Related papers: Does Physics Need 'Dark Matter'?
Dark matter is one of the pillars of the current standard model of structure formation: it is assumed to constitute most of the matter in the Universe. However, it can so far only be probed indirectly through its gravitational effects, and…
We discuss an overlooked factor in dark matter studies. Namely, if massless particles are captured into a local structure and stop free streaming in the universe, they no longer lose energy by cosmological red-shift, and no longer smear out…
A huge amount of good quality data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision Cosmology. Despite…
Ordinary baryonic particles (such as protons and neutrons) account for only one-sixth of the total matter in the Universe. The remainder is a mysterious "dark matter" component, which does not interact via electromagnetism and thus neither…
Dark energy is an elusive concept, which has been introduced two decades ago in order to make the acceleration of the universe a comprehensible phenomenon. However, the nature of this energy is far from being understood, both from a…
This short review was prepared as an introduction to the Royal Society's 'Dark Matter' conference. It addresses the embarrassing fact that 95% of the universe is unaccounted for. Favoured dark matter candidates are axions or…
Motivated by a revision of the classical equations of electromagnetism that allow for the inclusion of solitary waves in the solution space, the material collected in these notes examines the consequences of adopting the modified model in…
Bold strategies are needed to identify most of the elusive particles that should make up most of the Universe's mass
One of the deepest unsolved puzzles of subatomic physics is why Nature prefers the left particles to the right ones. Mirror matter is an attempt to understand this mystery by assuming the existence of a "parallel''world where this…
The current standard model of cosmology assumes that the majority of matter in the Universe is made of dark matter, and that the latter is fundamentally different from ordinary matter. Dark matter can in principle explain the rotation of…
In our current best cosmological model, the vast majority of matter in the Universe is dark, consisting of yet undetected, non-baryonic particles that do not interact electro-magnetically. So far, the only significant evidence for dark…
Since the 1930s, astronomical observations have accumulated evidence that our understanding of the dynamics of galaxies and groups of galaxies is grossly incomplete: assuming the validity of Newton's law of gravity on astronomical scales,…
In Cosmology and in Fundamental Physics there is a crucial question like: where the elusive substance that we call Dark Matter is hidden in the Universe and what is it made of?, that, even after 40 years from the Vera Rubin seminal…
The challenge of dark matter may be addressed in two ways; by studying the confrontation of structure formation with observation and by direct and indirect searches. In this review, I will focus on those aspects of dark matter that are…
Two exotic elements have been introduced into the standard cosmological model: non-baryonic dark matter and dark energy. The success in converting a hypothesis into a solid theory depends strongly on whether we are able to solve the…
The dark-matter candidates of particle physics invariably possess electromagnetic interactions, if only via quantum fluctuations. Taken en masse, dark matter can thus engender an index of refraction which deviates from its vacuum value. Its…
While the LCDM framework has been incredibly successful for modern cosmology, it requires the admission of two mysterious substances as a part of the paradigm, dark energy and dark matter. Although this framework adequately explains most of…
In these notes I will briefly summarize our knowledge about the dark matter problem, and emphasize the corresponding dynamical aspects. This covers a wide area of research, so I have been selective, and have concentrated on the subject of…
We entertain the possibility that the phenomena typically attributed to dark matter may have a fundamentally emergent nature, rather than arising from new particle degrees of freedom. To illustrate this idea, we consider a field-theoretic…
The observed excess of gravitational forces in galaxies and galactic clusters is usually referred as the existence of "dark matter particles" of unknown origin. An alternative explanation of the dark matter effect is presented here by…