Related papers: Dimming Starlight with Dark Compact Objects
Much interest has been generated recently by the ongoing MACHO, EROS and OGLE projects to identify gravitationally lensed stars from the Large Magellanic Cloud and Galactic bulge, and the positive identification of several events (Alcock et…
One of the key questions in particle physics and astrophysics is the nature of dark matter, which existence has been confirmed in many astrophysical and cosmological observations. Besides direct and indirect detection experiments, collider…
Cold interstellar gas clouds provide an exciting new method to discover dark matter. Their immense size makes them uniquely sensitive to interactions from the heaviest, most rarefied dark matter models. Using gas cloud observations, we…
We propose here a set of new methods to directly detect light mass dark matter through its scattering with abundant atmospheric muons or accelerator beams. Firstly, we plan to use the free cosmic-ray muons interacting with dark matter in a…
Dark matter in the form of axions is expected to form miniclusters, and their dense regions can harbor compact axion stars. Such axion stars could be discovered by microlensing events. In particular, some candidate events reported by Subaru…
In the direct detection of the galactic dark matter, experiments using cryogenic solid-state detectors or noble liquids play for years a very relevant role, with increasing target mass and more and more complex detection systems. But…
We consider the gravitational magnification of light for binary systems containing two compact objects: white dwarfs, a white dwarf and a neutron star or a white dwarf and a black hole. Light curves of the flares of the white dwarf caused…
Microlensing has established itself as a powerful new method for the detection of baryonic dark matter in the Galaxy. The theory of microlensing is sketched and its similarity with the optical effect of twinkling is explained. The bulk of…
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,…
Direct detection of dark matter continues to elude scientists' many attempts to see it interact, and still to this day the only way we know it is there is through observed gravitational effects. The many search experiments are at the point…
In this article, we have investigated the possibility to distinguish between different galactic models through the microlensing parallax studies. We show that a systematic search for parallax effects can be done using the currently running…
Paczy\'nski (1986) suggested that ``dark" objects in the halo of our Galaxy could enhance the luminosity of foreground stars, acting as gravitational microlenses. Such events has been recently reported by different collaborations. We assume…
We investigate gravitational microlensing of point-like lenses surrounded by diffuse gas clouds. Besides gravitational bending, one must also consider refraction and absorption phenomena. According to the cloud density, the light curves may…
Weak lensing surveys provide the possibility of identifying dark matter halos based on their total matter content rather than just the luminous matter content. On the basis of two sets of observations carried out with the CFHT, Erben et al.…
We consider the observation of diffuse halos of light around the discs of spiral galaxies, as a probe of the interaction cross section between Dark Matter and photons. Using the galaxy M101 as an example, we show that for a scattering cross…
The occultation of background stars by foreground Solar system objects, such as planets and asteroids, has been widely used as an observational probe to study physical properties associated with the foreground sample. Similarly, the…
Non-annihilating dark matter particles, owing to their interactions with ordinary baryonic matter, can efficiently accumulate inside celestial objects. For heavy mass, they gravitate toward the core of the celestial objects, thermalize in a…
Neutron stars offer powerful astrophysical laboratories to probe the properties of dark matter. Gradual accumulation of heavy, non-annihilating dark matter in neutron stars can lead to the formation of comparable-mass black holes, and…
The complementarity of direct, indirect and collider searches for dark matter has improved our understanding concerning the properties of the dark matter particle. I will review the basic concepts that these methods rely upon and highlight…
We use galaxy-galaxy lensing to investigate how the dark matter (DM) haloes and stellar content of galaxies with $0.012 \leq z \leq 0.32$ and $10 \leq \log_{10}(M_\star/\mathrm{M}_\odot) \leq 12$ change as a result of the merger process. To…