Related papers: Dark Matter: A Primer
The nature of cosmological dark matter finds its explanation in physics beyond the Standard model of elementary particles. The landscape of dark matter candidates contains a wide variety of species, either elusive or hardly detectable in…
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…
Cosmological measurements indicate that a large component of non-visible gravitating matter is present in the universe. A common hypothesis for its origin is a weakly interacting, massive particle. Annihilations or decays of such particles…
Multiple astrophysical and cosmological observations show that the majority of the matter in the universe is non-luminous. It is not made of known particles, and it is called dark matter. This is one of the few pieces of concrete…
The nature of dark matter (DM) and dark energy (DE) which is supposed to constitute about 95% of the energy density of the universe is still a mystery. There is no shortage of ideas regarding the nature of both. While some candidates for DM…
Observations show that about the 20% of the Universe is composed by invisible (dark) matter (DM), for which many candidates have been proposed. In particular, the anomalous behavior of rotational curves of galaxies (i.e. the flattening at…
In the past years a wealth of observations has unraveled the structural properties of dark and luminous mass distribution in galaxies, a benchmark for understanding dark matter and the process of galaxy formation. The study of the…
The problem of the dark matter in the universe is reviewed. A short history of the subject is given, and several of the most obvious particle candidates for dark matter are identified. Particular focus is given to weakly interacting,…
To the astrophysicist faced with the puzzle of dark matter, this one appears under two different aspects: on the one hand in cosmology, i.e. at very large scales, where it seems to be made of a bath of particles; on the other hand at the…
Without observational or theoretical modifications, Newtonian and general relativity seem to be unable to explain gravitational behavior of large structure of the universe. The assumption of dark matter solves this problem without modifying…
The non-Keplerian galactic rotational curves and the gravitational lensing data strongly indicate a significant dark matter component in the universe. Moreover, these data can be combined to deduce the equation of state of dark matter. Yet,…
Dark matter has been recognized as an essential part of matter for over 70 years now, and many suggestions have been made, what it could be. Most of these ideas have centered on Cold Dark Matter, particles that are expected in extensions of…
Dark matter (DM) is a new type of invisible matter introduced to explain various features of recent astrophysical observations, including galaxy rotation curves and other fundamental characteristics of our universe. DM may couple to…
Dark Matter (DM) is an elusive form of matter which has been postulated to explain astronomical observations through its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies, gravitational lensing of light around these, and through its imprint on…
Elucidating the nature of dark matter is a key priority that would involve discovering new fundamental physics and is essential for understanding the structure and evolution of the universe. Despite the decades-long ever-more-sensitive…
Well known scaling laws among the structural properties of the dark and the luminous matter in disc systems are too complex to be arisen by two inert components that just share the same gravitational field. This brings us to critically…
There is strong evidence for a large fraction of dark matter in the Universe. Some of the evidence and candidates for dark matter are reviewed. Dark matter in spiral galaxies may be in the form of cold dense clouds of molecular hydrogen.…
Astronomers have been using the measured luminosity to estimate the {\em luminous mass} of stars, based on empirically established mass-to-light ratio which seems to be only applicable to a special class of stars---the main-sequence…
The search for dark matter is a very wide and active field of research. Many potential hints of dark matter have appeared recently which led to a burst of theoretical activity and model building. I necessarily concentrate here only in some…
The nature of dark matter is one of the open problems of the Standard Model of particle physics. Despite the great experimental efforts, we have not yet found a positive signal of its interactions with ordinary matter. One possible…