Related papers: The properties of dark matter
The evolution of halos consisting of weakly self-interacting dark matter particles is summarized. The halos initially contain a central density cusp as predicted by cosmological models. Weak self-interaction leads to the formation of an…
The cold dark matter model successfully explains both the emergence and evolution of cosmic structures on large scales and, when we include a cosmological constant, the properties of the homogeneous and isotropic Universe. However, the cold…
Galaxies are composed of baryonic stars and gas embedded in dark matter halos. Here I briefly review two aspects of the connection between baryons and their halos. (1) The observed baryon content of galaxies falls short of the cosmic baryon…
After two decades of efforts to identify the enigmatic dark matter that comprises the dominant form of matter in our galaxy, the mass range for viable candidates appears to have been reduced by more than 50 orders of magnitude. Positive…
We argue that primordial dark matter halos could be generated during radiation domination by long range attractive forces stronger than gravity. In this paper we derive the conditions under which these structures could dominate the dark…
Reasons supporting the idea that most of the dark matter in galaxies and clusters of galaxies is baryonic are discussed. Moreover, it is argued that most of the dark matter in galactic halos should be in the form of MACHOs and cold…
The standard framework within which cosmological measurements are confronted and interpreted nowadays, called Lambda Cold Dark Matter, presents a Universe dominated by unknown forms of energy and matter. My Thesis is devoted to investigate…
We describe the first results from two observational projects aimed at measuring the amount and spatial distribution of dark matter in distant early-type galaxies (E/S0s) and clusters of galaxies. At the galaxy scale, the Lenses Structure…
The distributions of dark matter and baryons in the Universe are known to be very different: the dark matter resides in extended halos, while a significant fraction of the baryons have radiated away much of their initial energy and fallen…
We use a cosmological simulation of the Local Group to make quantitative and speculative predictions for direct detection experiments. Cold dark matter (CDM) halos form via a complex series of mergers, accretion events and violent…
Recent observations indicate that dark matter haloes have flat central density profiles. Cosmological simulations with non-baryonic dark matter predict however self similar haloes with central density cusps. This contradiction has lead to…
The central densities of dark matter (DM) halos are much lower than predicted in cold DM models of structure formation. Confirmation that they have cores with a finite central density would allow us to rule out many popular types of…
Analysing the weak lensing distortions of the images of faint background galaxies provides a means to constrain the mass distribution of cluster galaxies and potentially to test the extent of their dark matter halos as a function of the…
Cosmological structure formation predicts that our galactic halo contains an enormous hierarchy of substructures and streams, the remnants of the merging hierarchy that began with tiny Earth mass microhalos. If these structures persist…
Determining the structure of galaxy clusters is essential for an understanding of large scale structure in the universe, and may hold important clues to the identity and nature of dark matter particles. Moreover, the core dark matter…
A key prediction of the standard cosmological model -- which relies on the assumption that dark matter is cold, i.e. non-relativistic at the epoch of structure formation -- is the existence of a large number of dark matter substructures on…
We review some recent determinations of the amount of dark matter on galactic, cluster, and large scales, noting some puzzles and their possible resolutions. We discuss the interpretation of big bang nucleosynthesis for dark matter, and…
We consider the possibility that the dark matter is coupled through its mass to a scalar field associated with the dark energy of the Universe. In order for such a field to play a role at the present cosmological distances, it must be…
Clusters of galaxies, being dark matter dominated, have long been and still are the ideal cosmological targets to study the nature of dark matter. Constraints on the nature of dark matter comes in particular from the observational…
Observed rotational curves of neutral hydrogen clouds strongly support the fact that galactic halo contains huge amount of nonluminous matter, the so called gravitational dark matter. The nature of dark matter is a point of debate among the…