Related papers: Effects of a dark matter caustic passing through t…
Caustics are a generic feature of the nonlinear growth of structure in the dark matter distribution. If the dark matter were absolutely cold, its mass density would diverge at caustics, and the integrated annihilation probability would also…
On the scales of galaxies and beyond there is evidence for unseen dark matter. In this paper we find the experimental limits to the density of dark matter bound in the solar system by studying its effect upon planetary motion.
We study the influence of an open cluster environment on the formation and current structure of the Oort cloud. To do this, we have run 19 different simulations of the formation of the Oort Cloud for 4.5 Gyrs. In each simulation, the solar…
Gravitational collapse of dark matter, merger of dark matter haloes and tidal disruption of satellites are among processes which lead to the formation of fine and dense dark matter shells, also known as dark matter caustics. The putative…
We have investigated the effect of stellar encounters on the formation and disruption of the Oort cloud using the classical impulse approximation. We calculate the evolution of a planetesimal disk into a spherical Oort cloud due to the…
The late infall of cold dark matter onto an isolated galaxy such as our own produces flows with definite velocity vectors at any physical point in the galactic halo. It also produces caustics which are places where the dark matter density…
Comets are pristine remnants of the Solar system, composed of dust and ice. They remain inactive and undetectable for most of their orbit due to low temperatures. However, as they approach the Sun, volatile materials sublimate, expelling…
The Sun was born in a clustered environment with 10,000 other stars. Being an isolated star today, the Sun must have left the nest. We do not directly know when that happened, how violent the ejection was, or how far the Solar siblings have…
Since very recently, we acquired knowledge on the existence of comets in extrasolar planetary systems. The formation of comets together with planets around host stars now seems evident. As stars are often born in clusters of interstellar…
Recent numerical simulations have demonstrated that the Sun's dynamical history within the Milky Way may be much more complex than that suggested by its current low peculiar velocity. In particular, the Sun may have radially migrated…
General relativity can have a significant impact on the long-range escape trajectories of solar sails deployed near the sun. Spacetime curvature in the vicinity of the sun can cause a solar sail traveling from 0.01 AU to 2550 AU to be…
We study the effects of energy transport in the Sun by asymmetric dark matter with momentum and velocity-dependent interactions, with an eye to solving the decade-old Solar Abundance Problem. We study effective theories where the dark…
We show that the effects of radial galactic tides alone can change the dynamics of an Oort cloud of comets around a star in a highly sensitive manner. The Oort cloud dynamics depends primarily from the star's position in the Galaxy and its…
It is unknown if an Oort cloud reaches its maximum mass within its star's birth cluster or millions of years later. Complicating the Oort cloud evolution process is the fact that comets can be stripped from orbit due to perturbations from…
Dark matter could be captured in the Sun and self-annihilate, giving rise to an observable neutrino flux. Indirect searches for dark matter looking for this signal with neutrino telescopes have resulted in tight constraints on the…
Using the Moon to occult the Sun, the Clementine spacecraft used its navigation cameras to map the inner zodiacal light at optical wavelengths over elongations of 3-30 degrees from the Sun. This surface brightness map is then used to infer…
We examine the effects of passing field stars on the angular momentum of a nearly radial orbit of an Oort cloud comet bound to the Sun. We derive the probability density function (PDF) of the change in angular momentum from one stellar…
I review constraints on solar system-bound dark matter, and discuss the possibility that dark matter could be gravitationally bound to the earth and other planets. I briefly survey various empirical constraints on such planet-bound dark…
We investigate aspects of computing the perihelion distances and impact parameters for near stars to the Sun, and, we analyze the solar motion. Keywords: perihelion distance, impact parameter, Oort cloud, solar motion
We present Monte Carlo simulations of the dynamical evolution of the Oort cloud over the age of the Solar System, using an initial sample of one million test comets without any cloning. Our model includes perturbations due to the Galactic…