Related papers: Dark matter under the microscope: Constraining com…
The determination of galaxy cluster mass is of great importance since it is directly linked to the well- known problem of dark matter in the Universe and to the cluster baryon content. X-ray observations from satellites have enabled a…
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…
Increasing evidences suggest that the Galactic halo is lumpy on kpc scales due to the accretion of at least a dozen small galaxies (LMC/SMC, Sgr, Fornax etc.). Faint stars in such lumpy structures can significant microlense a background…
We present an analysis of the large set of microlensing events detected so far toward the Galactic center with the purpose of investigating whether some of the dark lenses are located in Galactic globular clusters. We find that in four…
Most of the matter in the universe is not luminous and can be observed directly only through its gravitational effect. An emerging technique called weak gravitational lensing uses background galaxies to reveal the foreground dark matter…
Cluster scaling relations are key ingredients in cluster abundance-based cosmological studies. In optical cluster cosmology, where clusters are detected through their richness, cluster-weak gravitational lensing has proven to be a powerful…
Microlensed stars recently discovered by JWST & HST follow closely the winding critical curve of A370 along all sections of the ``Dragon Arc" traversed by the critical curve. These transients are fainter than $m_{AB}>26.5$, corresponding to…
We present a deep H-band image of the region in the vicinity of the cluster Abell 1942 containing the puzzling dark matter concentration detected in an optical weak lensing study by Erben et al. (2000). We demonstrate that our limiting…
We provide a status report on our search for dark matter in our Galaxy in the form of massive compact halo objects (or Machos), using gravitational microlensing of background stars. This search uses a very large format CCD camera on the…
A close-in giant planetary (CGP) system has a net polarization signal whose value varies depending on the orbital phase of the planet. This polarization signal is either caused by the stellar occultation or by reflected starlight from the…
Stellar microlensing observations tightly constrain compact object dark matter in the mass range $(10^{-11} - 10^{3}) M_{\odot}$. Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) form clusters, and it has been argued that these microlensing constraints are…
It is generally thought that galaxies are embedded in dark matter halos extending well beyond their luminous matter. The existence of these galactic halos is mainly derived from the larger than expected velocities of stars and gas in the…
A fraction of light scalar dark matter, especially axions, may organize into Bose-Einstein condensates, gravitationally bound clumps, "boson stars", and be present in large number in galactic halos today. We compute the expected number of…
It has been shown by Paczy\'nski that gravitational microlensing is potentially a useful method for detecting the dark constituents of the halo of our galaxy, if their mass lies in the approximate domain $10^{-6}<M/M_\odot<10^{-1}$.…
We discuss a possible method for detection of dark companions of galactic objects of stellar mass. Such binary systems are likely to occur in the galactic disk and possibly also in the halo. The high incidence of binary and…
Ultralight dark matter is an interesting dark matter candidate describing the lightest end of the mass parameter space. This model produces an oscillating granular pattern in halo densities. These fluctuations have the potential to produce…
The detailed distribution of mass within clusters of galaxies can be used to probe the nature of dark matter. We show that constraints on the extent of the mass distribution around galaxies in the rich cluster Abell 2218 obtained from…
The unique properties of dark matter are revealed during collisions between clusters of galaxies, like the bullet cluster (1E 0657-56) and baby bullet (MACSJ0025-12). These systems provide evidence for an additional, invisible mass in the…
We present X-ray and weak lensing observations of the merging cluster system 1E0657-556. Due to the recently collision of a merging subcluster with the main cluster, the X-ray plasma has been displaced from the cluster galaxies in both…
We present a survey of mass profiles and mass-to-light ratios of eight typical galaxy clusters at a common redshift (z ~ 0.2). We use weak gravitational lensing as a probe because it is unique in avoiding any assumptions about the dynamical…