Related papers: Galactic mapping with general relativity and the o…
We present robust constraints from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) on the shape and distribution of the dark matter halo within the Milky Way (MW). Using the number density distribution and kinematics of SDSS halo stars, we probe the…
It has long been known that Newtonian dynamics applied to the visible matter in galaxies and clusters does not correctly describe the dynamics of those systems. While this is generally taken as evidence for dark matter it is in principle…
The Gaia mission has triggered major developments in the field of Galactic dynamics in recent years, which we discuss in this review. The structure and kinematics of all Galactic components - disc, bar/bulge and halo - are now mapped in…
Making robust predictions for the phase space distribution of dark matter at the solar neighbourhood is vital for dark matter direct detection experiments. To date, almost all such predictions have been based on simulations that model the…
The Milky Way disc presents a warp, a flare, lopsidedness and other deviations from a purely axisymmetrical double exponential density component, both for the stellar and the gas component. Moreover, recent large-scale extended kinematics…
We present the distribution of luminous and dark matter in a set of strong lensing (early-type) galaxies. By combining two independent techniques - stellar population synthesis and gravitational lensing - we can compare the baryonic and…
We study the vertical density distribution of stars and gas (HI and H_2) in a galactic disk which is embedded in a dark matter halo. The new feature of this work is the inclusion of gas, and the gravitational coupling between stars and gas,…
The infall of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) into the Milky Way's halo impacts the distribution of stars and dark matter in our Galaxy. Mapping the observational consequences of this encounter can inform us about the properties of both…
We present a new estimate of the mass of the Milky Way, inferred via a Bayesian approach by making use of tracers of the circular velocity in the disk plane and stars in the stellar halo, as from the publicly available {\tt galkin}…
Modified gravity theories such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and Scalar-Tensor-Vector Gravity (STVG) have been proposed as alternatives to dark matter, but decisive tests have been hindered by degeneracies between baryonic structure…
Dark matter has been a long-standing and important issue in physics, but direct evidence of its existence is lacking. This work aims to elucidate the mystery and show that the dark matter hypothesis is unnecessary. We can nicely reproduce…
Two alternative theories to dark matter are investigated by testing their ability to describe consistently the dynamics of the Milky Way. The first one refers to a modified gravity theory having a running gravitational constant and the…
We study the vertical stellar distribution of the Milky Way thin disk in detail with particular focus on the outer disk. We treat the galactic disk as a gravitationally coupled, three-component system consisting of stars, atomic hydrogen…
The standard cold dark matter plus cosmological constant model predicts that galaxies form within dark-matter haloes, and that low-mass galaxies are more dark-matter dominated than massive ones. The unexpected discovery of two low-mass…
Stellar and gas kinematics of galaxies are a sensitive probe of the dark matter distribution in the halo. The popular fuzzy dark matter models predict the peculiar shape of density distribution in galaxies: specific dense core with sharp…
Large galaxies may contain an "atmosphere" of hot interstellar X-ray gas, and the temperature and radial density profile of this gas can be used to measure the total mass of the galaxy contained within a given radius r. We use this…
We use a cosmological galactic evolutionary approach to model the Milky Way. A detailed treatment of the mass aggregation and dynamical history of the growing dark halo is included, together with a self consistent physical treatment for the…
We present a study on the clustering of a stellar mass selected sample of galaxies with stellar masses M*>10^10Msol at redshifts 0.4<z<2.0, taken from the Palomar Observatory Wide-field Infrared Survey. We examine the clustering properties…
We consider the possibility of an alternative gravity theory explaining the dynamics of galactic systems without dark matter. From very general assumptions about the structure of a relativistic gravity theory we derive a general expression…
We review most dynamical constraints on the gravitational field of spiral galaxies in general, and of the Milky Way in particular. Such constraints are of prime importance for determining the characteristics of the putative dark matter…