Related papers: Interstellar Gas and a Dark Disk
The fact that dark matter (DM), thus far, has revealed itself only on scales of galaxies and larger, again thrusts onto astrophysics the opportunity and the responsibility to confront the age old mystery "What is the nature of matter?" By…
The density of dark matter near the Sun is important for experiments hunting for dark matter particles in the laboratory, and for constraining the local shape of the Milky Way's dark matter halo. Estimates to date have typically assumed…
A precise determination of the local dark matter density and an accurate control over the corresponding uncertainties are of paramount importance for Dark Matter (DM) searches. Using very recent high-resolution numerical simulations of a…
Sensitive ground-based submillimeter surveys, such as ATLASGAL, provide a global view on the distribution of cold dense gas in the Galactic plane. Here we use the 353 GHz maps from the Planck/HFI instrument to complement the ground-based…
We explore various instability models for the onset of star formation in irregular galaxies. Critical gas densities are calculated for gravitational instabilities with a thin, pure-gas disk, and with a thick disk composed of gas and a…
We use the clump giants of the disk as standard candles calibrated from Hipparcos parallaxes in order to map their distribution with two new near-IR surveys of the Galactic plane: UKIDSS-GPS and VVV. We explore different selection cuts of…
Protoplanetary disks are composed primarily of gas (99% of the mass). Nevertheless, relatively few observational constraints exist for the gas in disks. In this review, I discuss several observational diagnostics in the UV, optical,…
Selection effects, such as interstellar extinction and varying survey depth, complicate efforts to determine the gravitational potential - and thus the distribution of baryonic and dark matter - throughout the Milky Way galaxy using stellar…
Our standard model of the Universe predicts the distribution of dark matter to $1\%$ at the scales needed for upcoming experiments, yet our predictions for how the luminous matter -- which has interactions besides gravity -- is distributed…
In the last few years new evidence has been presented for the presence of ongoing massive star formation in the outer HI disks of galaxies. These discoveries strongly suggest that precursor molecular gas must also be present in some…
Interstellar thermal pressures can be measured using C I absorption lines that probe the pressure-sensitive populations of the fine-structure levels of its ground state. In a survey of C I absorption toward Galactic hot stars, Jenkins &…
Metals in the diffuse, ionized gas at the boundary between the Milky Way's interstellar medium (ISM) and circumgalactic medium (CGM), known as the disk-halo interface (DHI), are valuable tracers of the feedback processes that drive the…
We investigate the presence and importance of dark matter discs in a sample of 24 simulated Milky Way galaxies in the APOSTLE project, part of the EAGLE programme of hydrodynamic simulations in Lambda-CDM cosmology. It has been suggested…
Recent work on the mass distribution in spiral galaxies, using mainly HI observations, is reviewed. The principal problem is still to determine to what extent the dark matter is important in the inner parts of a galaxy, or in other words,…
We analyze the relationship between the mass of a spherical component and the minimum possible thickness of stable stellar disks. This relationship for real galaxies allows the lower limit on the dark halo mass to be estimated (the thinner…
This report summarises progress made in estimating the local density of dark matter ($\rho_{\mathrm{DM,\odot}}$), a quantity that is especially important for dark matter direct detection experiments. We outline and compare the most common…
We present an approach to measure the Milky Way (MW) potential using the angular accelerations of stars in aggregate as measured by astrometric surveys like Gaia. Accelerations directly probe the gradient of the MW potential, as opposed to…
Dark gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) is believed to not be detectable either in CO or Hi radio emission, but it is detected by other means including gamma-rays, dust emission and extinction traced outside the Galactic plane at |b|>5…
I present a new method of deriving the shape of the dark matter (DM) halos of spiral galaxies. The method relies on the comparison of model predictions with high spectral and spatial resolution HI observations of the gas layer. The…
A thick dark matter disk is predicted in cold dark matter simulations as the outcome of the interaction between accreted satellites and the stellar disk in Milky Way sized halos. We study the effects of a self-interacting thick dark disk on…