Related papers: Astrophysical Constraints on Dark Matter
Dark matter is, arguably, the most widely discussed topic in contemporary particle physics. Written in the language of particle physics and quantum field theory, these notes focus on a set of standard calculations needed to understand…
We review the features of Dark Matter as a particle, presenting some old and new instructive models, and looking for their physical implications in the early universe and in the process of structure formation. We also present a schematic of…
One of the great scientific enigmas still unsolved, the existence of dark matter, is reviewed. Simple gravitational arguments imply that most of the mass in the Universe, at least 90%, is some (unknown) non-luminous matter. Some particle…
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…
Although dark matter is a central element of modern cosmology, the history of how it became accepted as part of the dominant paradigm is often ignored or condensed into a brief anecdotical account focused around the work of a few pioneering…
Mirror matter is a stable self-collisional dark matter candidate. If parity is a conserved unbroken symmetry of nature, there could exist a parallel hidden (mirror) sector of the Universe composed of particles with the same masses and…
Introduction to the meaning of dark matter and a few historical gestures. What it is? By what the dark matter is formed? Experimental phenomenon evidences and relative explanation under the point of view of the physics of the elementary…
The unknown state of matter at ultra-high density, large proton/neutron number asymmetry, and low temperature is a major long-standing problem in modern physics. Neutron stars provide the only known setting in the Universe where matter in…
Starting from the evidence that dark matter indeed exists and permeates the entire cosmos, various bounds on its properties can be estimated. Beginning with the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure, we summarize bounds on…
I review constraints on solar system-bound dark matter, and discuss the possibility that dark matter could be gravitationally bound to the earth and other planets. I briefly survey various empirical constraints on such planet-bound dark…
A cosmological model of dark energy interacting with dark matter and another general component of the universe is investigated. We found general constraints on these models imposing an accelerated expansion. The same is also studied in the…
A huge amount of good quality astrophysical 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…
The nature of dark matter remains a central question in particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. The prevailing hypothesis postulates that dark matter consists of particles that interact only weakly with Standard Model particles.…
For two decades the hot big-bang model as been referred to as the standard cosmology -- and for good reason. For just as long cosmologists have known that there are fundamental questions that are not answered by the standard cosmology and…
We discuss variants of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) dominated cosmological models that give good agreement with a range of observations. We consider models with hot dark matter, tilt, $\Omega < 1$, or a cosmological constant. We also discuss the…
Models where Dark Matter and Dark Energy interact with each other have been proposed to solve the coincidence problem. We review the motivations underlying the need to introduce such interaction, its influence on the background dynamics and…
We investigate how the nature of dark energy affects the determination of the curvature of the universe from recent observations. For this purpose, we consider the constraints on the matter and dark energy density using observations of type…
We consider generic freeze-in processes for generation of Dark Matter, together with the consequent re-thermalization of the Standard Model fluid. We find that Dark Matter inherits the Standard Model adiabatic inhomogeneities on the…
The standard model of cosmology relies on the existence of two components, "dark matter" and "dark energy", which dominate the expansion of the Universe. There is no direct proof of their existence, and their nature is still unknown. Many…
From astronomical observations, we know that dark matter exists, makes up 23% of the mass budget of the Universe, clusters strongly to form the load-bearing frame of structure for galaxy formation, and hardly interacts with ordinary matter…