Related papers: Gaia, Fundamental Physics, and Dark Matter
In the light of new full-sky surveys, many attempts of creating a consistent Galactic model were made. The main interest is to estimate the still poorly understood dark matter content. However, the results vary depending on methodology,…
Gaia is a revolutionary space mission developed by ESA and is delivering 5 parameter astrometry, photometry and radial velocities over the whole sky with astrometric accuracies down to a few tens of micro-arcseconds. A weakness of Gaia is…
The {\Gaia} astrometric mission was approved by the European Space Agency in 2000 and the construction of the spacecraft and payload is on-going for a launch in late 2012. {\Gaia} will continuously scan the entire sky for 5 years, yielding…
We use the framework of microlensing to show that observations of binary systems, such as those made by {\it Gaia}, combined with follow-up weak lensing measurements, can provide a means to probe halos of exotic matter, possibly clumped…
The nearest stars provide a fundamental constraint for our understanding of stellar physics and the Galaxy. The nearby sample serves as an anchor where all objects can be studied and understood with precise data. This work is an update of…
Dark matter is estimated to make up ~84% of all normal/baryonic matter, but cannot be directly imaged. Despite the fact that dark matter cannot be directly observed yet, its influence on the motion of stars and gas in spiral galaxies have…
Context. White dwarfs can be used to study the structure and evolution of the Galaxy by analysing their luminosity function and initial mass function. Among them, the very cool white dwarfs provide the information for the early ages of each…
We discuss the use of galaxies to trace the large-scale structure of the universe and thereby to make cosmological inferences. We put special emphasis on our lack of knowledge about the relative distribution of galaxies and the dynamically…
The Gaia mission has observed over 2 billion stars repeatedly across the entire sky over 10 years, revealing the many astronomical objects that vary on human timescales from seconds to years. Its repeated astrometric, photometric,…
Combined studies of variable stars and stellar clusters open great horizons, and they allow us to improve our understanding of stellar cluster formation and stellar evolution. In that prospect, the Gaia mission will provide astrometric,…
In astronomy, we are witnessing an enormous increase in the number of source detections, precision, and diversity of measurements. Additionally, multi-epoch data is becoming the norm, making time-series analyses an important aspect of…
This paper reviews the field of gamma-ray astronomy and describes future experiments and prospects for advances in fundamental physics and high-energy astrophysics through gamma-ray measurements. We concentrate on recent progress in the…
These lecture notes aim to provide an introduction to dark matter from the perspective of astrophysics/cosmology. We start with a rapid overview of cosmology, including the evolution of the Universe, its thermal history and structure…
With Gaia in orbit since December 2013 it is time to look at the future of fundamental astrometry and a time frame of 50 years is needed in this matter. A space mission with Gaia-like astrometric performance is required, but not necessarily…
We review the mathematical models available for relativistic astrometry, discussing the different approaches and their accuracies in the context of the modern experiments from space like Gaia and GAME, and we show how these models can be…
This paper reviews recent progress in the field of direct measurements of Galactic cosmic rays. High-statistic measurements of cosmic ray energy spectra, chemical and isotopic composition, and the rare antimatter components have been made…
The history of astrometry, the branch of astronomy dealing with the positions of celestial objects, is a lengthy and complex chronicle, having its origins in the earliest records of astronomical observations more than two thousand years…
Gaia Data Release 1 (Gaia DR1) contains astrometric results for more than 1 billion stars brighter than magnitude 20.7 based on observations collected by the Gaia satellite during the first 14 months of its operational phase. We give a…
The existence of dark matter is supported by multiple astrophysical observations, yet its particle nature remains unknown. The development of gravitational wave astronomy, especially with future space-based detectors such as LISA, provides…
Asteroseismology provides fundamental properties (mass, radius and effective temperature) of solar-like oscillating stars using so-called scaling relations. These properties allow the computation of the asteroseismic distance of stars. We…