Related papers: Small-Scale Challenges to the $\Lambda$CDM Paradig…
High resolution N-body simulations of cold dark matter (CDM) models predict that galaxies and clusters have cuspy halos with excessive substructure. Observations reveal smooth halos with central density cores. One possible resolution of…
The mass function of cluster-size halos and their redshift distribution are computed for 12 distinct accelerating cosmological scenarios and confronted to the predictions of the conventional flat $\Lambda$CDM model. The comparison with…
We study the effect of baryons on the abundance of structures and substructures in a Lambda-CDM cosmology, using a pair of high resolution cosmological simulations from the GIMIC project. Both simulations use identical initial conditions,…
As one of the fundamental unknowns of our Universe, the mass of dark matter remains to be a topic of great interest. We consider the possibility of a time-variation of the dark matter mass. We study the cosmological constraints on a model…
The demographics of dwarf galaxy populations have long been in tension with predictions from the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm. If primordial density fluctuations were scale-free as predicted, dwarf galaxies should themselves host dark…
In the CDM scenario, dark matter halos are assembled hierarchically from smaller subunits. A long-standing problem with this picture is that the number of sub-halos predicted by CDM simulations is orders of magnitudes higher than the known…
The cosmic large-scale structure of our Universe is comprised of baryons and cold dark matter (CDM). Yet it is customary to treat these two components as a combined single-matter fluid with vanishing pressure, which is justified only for…
Decaying dark matter (DDM) is a candidate which can solve the discrepancies between predictions of the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model and observations at small scales such as the number counts of companion galaxies of the Milky Way and the…
The defining characteristic of the cold dark matter (CDM) hypothesis is the presence of a very large number of low-mass haloes, too small to have made a visible galaxy. Other hypotheses for the nature of the dark matter, such as warm dark…
Cosmological models involving an interaction between dark matter and dark energy have been proposed in order to solve the so-called coincidence problem. Different forms of coupling have been studied, but there have been claims that…
Dark matter is a vital component of the current best model of our universe, $\Lambda$CDM. There are leading candidates for what the dark matter could be (e.g. weakly-interacting massive particles, or axions), but no compelling observational…
We examine the dynamics of stellar systems embedded within cold dark matter (CDM) halos in order to assess observational constraints on the dark matter content of Local Group dwarf spheroidals (dSphs). Our analysis shows that the total mass…
I begin by briefly reviewing the evidence for the existence of Dark Matter (DM), emphasizing that {\em many} observations, at length scales between kpc (the size of the smallest galaxies) and Gpc (the Hubble radius) can be described by the…
The current standard model of cosmology, $\Lambda$CDM, requires dark matter to make up around $25\%$ of the total energy budget of the Universe. Yet, quite puzzlingly, there appears to be no candidate particle in the current Standard Model…
In the very last years, cosmological models where the properties of the dark components of the Universe - dark matter and dark energy - are accounted for by a single "dark fluid" have drawn increasing attention and interest. Amongst many…
Most dark energy models have the $\Lambda$CDM as their limit, and if future observations constrain our universe to be close to $\Lambda$CDM Bayesian arguments about the evidence and the fine-tuning will have to be employed to discriminate…
Cosmology is entering a very exciting time in its history, when a wealth of cutting-edge experiments are all starting to collect data, or about to. These experiments aim at addressing some of the most intriguing questions in fundamental…
Warm Dark Matter (WDM) particles with masses ($\sim$ kilo electronvolt) offer an attractive solution to the small-scale issues faced by the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm. The delay of structure formation in WDM models and the associated…
The galaxy correlation function serves as a fundamental tool for studying cosmology, galaxy formation, and the nature of dark matter. It is well established that more massive, redder and more compact galaxies tend to have stronger…
(Abridged) Despite the success of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) in explaining a wide range of observations, the microscopic nature of dark matter is still unknown. Attempts to detect WIMPs, the most commonly studied form, have not yet succeeded.…