Related papers: Constraining dark matter sub-structure with the dy…
In the cold dark matter scenario, the smallest dark matter halos may be earth mass or smaller. These microhalos would be the densest dark matter objects in the Universe, making their accurate characterization important for astrophysical…
In the current concordance cosmology small halos are expected to be completely dark and can significantly perturb low-mass galaxies during minor merger interactions. These interactions may well contribute to the diversity of the dwarf…
Tidal debris streams from galaxy satellites can provide insight into the dark matter distribution in halos. This is because we have more information about stars in a debris structure than about a purely random population of stars: we know…
The presence of a dissipative dark matter (DM) sector may allow for the trapping of a significant DM mass inside stars, either during structure formation or by accretion over their lifetime, influencing stellar behavior well into the Main…
We have searched for and estimated the possible gravitational influence of dark matter in the Solar system based on the EPM2011 planetary ephemerides using about 677 thousand positional observations of planets and spacecraft. Most of the…
A decade ago cosmological simulations of increasingly higher resolution were used to demonstrate that virialized regions of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halos are filled with a multitude of dense, gravitationally-bound clumps. These dark matter…
While it is possible to estimate the dark matter density at the Sun distance from the galactic center, this does not give information on actual dark matter density in the Solar system. There can be considerable local enhancement of dark…
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 reexamined the framework used to determine the dark matter mass of a subhalo using the gravitational effects of its passage upon the stellar halo of a host. In particular, we aim to include different density distribution functions for…
We study how the indirect observation of dark matter substructures in the Milky Way, using recent stellar stream studies, translates into constraints for different dark matter models. Particularly, we use the measured number of dark…
Cold or Warm, the Dark Matter substructure spectrum must extend to objects with masses as low as $10^7 M_\odot$, according to the most recent Lyman-$\alpha$ measurements. Around a Milky Way-like galaxy, more than a thousand of these…
High-resolution N-body simulations of dark matter halos indicate that the Milky Way contains numerous subhalos. When a dark matter subhalo passes in front of a star, the light from that star will be deflected by gravitational lensing,…
N-body simulations and analytical calculations of the gravitational collapse in an expanding universe predict that halos should form with a diverging inner density profile, the cusp. There are some observational indications that the dark…
The existence and detection of scalar fields could provide solutions to long-standing puzzles about the nature of dark matter, the dark compact objects at the centre of most galaxies, and other phenomena. Yet, self-interacting scalar fields…
We explore observed dynamical trends in a wide range of dark matter dominated systems (about seven orders of magnitude in mass) to constrain hypothetical dark matter candidates and scenarios of structure formation. First, we argue that…
Massive compact objects soften binaries. This process has been used for decades to constrain the population of such objects, particularly as a component of dark matter (DM). The effects of light compact objects, such as those in the…
Tidal streams are highly sensitive to perturbations from passing dark matter (DM) subhalos and thus provide a means of measuring their abundance. In a recent paper, we analyzed the distribution of stars along the GD-1 stream with a…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly from the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and indirectly, from measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. Dark energy contributes about 2/3 of the…
Much recent discussion about dark matter has been centered on two seemingly independent problems: the abundance of substructure in dark matter halos, and the cuspiness of the halos' inner density profile. We explore possible connections…
We point out a new and largely model-independent constraint on the dark matter scattering cross section with nucleons, applying when this quantity is larger than for typical weakly interacting dark matter candidates. When the dark matter…