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Macroscopic dark matter (macros) is a broad class of alternative candidates to particle dark matter. These candidates would transfer energy to matter primarily through elastic scattering. A sufficiently large macro passing through the…
A recent study pointed out that macroscopic dark matter (macros) traversing through the earth's atmosphere can give rise to hot and ionized channels similar to those associated with lightning leaders. The authors of the study investigated…
Macroscopic dark matter (macros) are a broad class of alternative candidates to particle dark matter. These candidates would transfer energy primarily through elastic scattering, and this linear energy deposition would produce observable…
There is abundant evidence that the mass of the Universe is dominated by dark matter of unknown form. The MACHO project is one of several teams searching for the dark matter around our Galaxy in the form of Massive Compact Halo Objects…
Traditional evidence for large amount of dark matter is based on dynamical consideration for systems with $ t_{dyn} \gg t_{obs} $. Recent observational and theoretical developments in gravitational lensing offer a much more robust…
In this short paper, we present some comments on the paper: Straight lightning as a signature of macroscopic dark matter, by Nathaniel Starkman, Harrison Winch, Jagjit Singh Sidhu, and Glenn Starkman, Phys. Rev. D 103, 063024, Published 18…
Macroscopic dark matter (aka macros) constitutes a broad class of alternatives to particulate dark matter. We calculate the luminosity produced by the passage of a single macro as a function of its physical cross section. A general…
Macroscopic dark matter -- "macros"-- refers to a broad class of alternative candidates to particle dark matter with still unprobed regions of parameter space. These candidates would transfer energy primarily through elastic scattering with…
If the Universe has a significant baryonic dark component in the form of compact objects in galaxy halos (machos), then there is a minute chance (about $10^{-7}$) that one of the Galactic machos passes sufficiently close to our line of…
Shine a flashlight on a black hole, and one is greeted with the return of a series of concentric rings of light. For a point source of light, and for perfect alignment of the lens, source, and observer, the rings are of infinite brightness…
It is now, generally, believed that the presence of some form of dark matter is essential to explain the flat rotation curves of galaxies, and anomalous large velocities of galaxies in the clusters and superclusters. This dark matter turns…
The evidence for the dark matter of the hot big bang cosmology is about as good as it gets in natural science. The exploration of its nature is now led by direct and indirect detection experiments, to be complemented by advances in the full…
Many gravitationally lensed quasars exhibit flux ratio "anomalies" that cannot be explained under the hypothesis that the lensing potential is smooth on scales smaller than one kpc. Micro-lensing by stars is a natural source of granularity…
A model of lightning that captures the propagation of lightning channels on an irregular lattice is developed. The irregular lattice allows us to capture large two-dimensional systems (2 km x 2 km), while allowing grid refinement (on the…
There is strong evidence for a large fraction of dark matter in the Universe. Some of the evidence and candidates for dark matter are reviewed. Dark matter in spiral galaxies may be in the form of cold dense clouds of molecular hydrogen.…
The possibility that part of the dark matter is made of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) remains poorly constrained over a wide range of masses, and especially in the $20-100\, M_\odot$ window. We show that strong gravitational lensing…
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…
Ball lightning is an impressive natural electromagnetic phenomenon occurring in atmosphere under suitable circumstances. Its origin, composition and stability issues are a matter of debate, due to presence of many evidences still…
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…
The problem of the dark matter in the universe is reviewed. A short history of the subject is given, and several of the most obvious particle candidates for dark matter are identified. Particular focus is given to weakly interacting,…