Related papers: Galactic Searches for Dark Matter
Dark matter, proposed decades ago as a speculative component of the universe, is now known to be the vital ingredient in the cosmos, eight times more abundant than ordinary matter, one quarter of the total energy density and the component…
Our understanding of the Universe today includes overwhelming observational evidence for the existence of an elusive form of matter that is generally referred to as dark. Although many theories have been developed to describe its nature,…
Cosmological and astrophysical observations currently provide the only robust, positive evidence for dark matter. Cosmic probes of dark matter, which seek to determine the fundamental properties of dark matter through observations of the…
The presence of Dark Matter (DM) is required in the universe regulated by the standard general relativistic theory of gravitation. The nature of DM is however still elusive to any experimental search. We discuss here the process of…
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…
In this review article the current status of particle dark matter is addressed. We discuss the main theoretical extensions of the standard model which allow to explain dark matter in terms of a (yet undiscovered) elementary particle. We…
The dark matter content of galaxies is usually determined from galaxies in dynamical equilibrium, mainly from rotationally supported galactic components. Such determinations restrict measurements to special regions in galaxies, e.g. the…
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…
In the first section, I will try to convey a sense of the variety of observational inputs that tell us about the existence and the spatial distribution of dark matter in the universe. In the second section, I will briefly review the four…
There is plenty of evidence that most matter in the Universe is dark (non-luminous). Particle physics offers several possible explanations. In this talk I focus on cold dark matter; the most promising candidates are then axions and the…
Despite several indirect confirmations of the existence of dark matter, the properties of a new dark matter particle are still largely unknown. Several experiments are currently searching for this particle underground in direct detection,…
Within the standard cosmological scenario the Universe is found to be filled by obscure components (dark matter and dark energy) for ~95% of its energy budget. In particular, almost all the matter content in the Universe is given by dark…
A leading hypothesis for the nature of the elusive dark matter are thermally produced, weakly interacting massive particles that arise in many theories beyond the standard model of particle physics. Their self-annihilation in astrophysical…
We use the calculations derived in a previous paper (M\'era, Chabrier and Schaeffer, 1997), based on observational constraints arising from star counts, microlensing experiments and kinematic properties, to determine the amount of dark…
We discuss the formation of dark compact objects in a dark matter environment in view of the possible mass dependence of pulsars on the distribution of dark matter in the Galaxy. Our results indicate that the pulsar masses should decrease…
Even though there are strong astrophysical and cosmological indications to support the existence of dark matter, its exact nature remains unknown. We expect dark matter to produce standard model particles when annihilating or decaying,…
The evidence is that the mass of the universe is dominated by an exotic nonbaryonic form of matter largely draped around the galaxies. It approximates an initially low pressure gas of particles that interact only with gravity, but we know…
Traditional evidence for large amount of dark matter is based on dynamical consideration for systems with $ t_{dyn} \gg t_{obs} $. Recent observational and theoretical developments in gravitational lensing offer a much more robust…
A review of the development of the concept of dark matter is given. I begin the review with the description of the discovery of the mass paradox in our Galaxy and in clusters of galaxies. In mid 1970s the amount of observational data was…
Cosmology and astroparticle physics give strongest possible evidence for the incompleteness of the Standard Model of particle physics. Leaving aside misterious dark energy, which may or may not be just the cosmological constant, two…