Related papers: Mapping luminous and dark matter in the Universe
Explaining the well established observation that the expansion rate of the universe is apparently accelerating is one of the defining scientific problems of our age. Within the standard model of cosmology, the repulsive 'dark energy'…
To explain the acceleration of the cosmological expansion researchers have considered an unusual form of mass-energy generically called dark energy. Dark energy has a ratio of pressure over mass density which obeys $w=p/\rho <-1/3$. This…
The spatial arrangement of galaxies (of satellites on a scale of 100kpc) as well as their three-dimensional distribution in galaxy groups such as the Local Group (on a scale of 1Mpc), the distribution of galaxies in the nearby volume of…
In this work we explore a model of the universe in which dark energy is modelled explicitely with both a dynamical quintessence field (with a double exponential self-interaction potential) and a cosmological constant. For a given region of…
This paper reviews statistical methods recently developed to reconstruct and analyze dark matter mass maps from weak lensing observations. The field of weak lensing is motivated by the observations made in the last decades showing that the…
In 1900 it was believed that almost 100% of the mass of the Universe resided in stars. Now, in the year 2000, such stars (and cold gas) are known to account for only ~1% its mass. The remaining mass of the Universe is thought to reside in…
The present standard model of cosmology states that the known particles carry only a tiny fraction of total mass and energy of the Universe. Rather, unknown dark matter and dark energy are the dominant contributions to the cosmic energy…
The interaction between dark matter and dark energy can be incorporated into field theory models of dark energy that have proved successful in alleviating the coincidence problem. We review recent advances in this field, including new…
Exploring the recent expansion history of the universe promises insights into the cosmological model, the nature of dark energy, and potentially clues to high energy physics theories and gravitation. We examine the extent to which precision…
The nature of dark matter (DM) and dark energy (DE) which is supposed to constitute about 95% of the energy density of the universe is still a mystery. There is no shortage of ideas regarding the nature of both. While some candidates for DM…
Despite two decades of tremendous experimental and theoretical progress, the riddle of the accelerated expansion of the Universe remains to be solved. On the experimental side, our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of the…
The Universe on large scales is well described by the Lambda-CDM cosmological model. There however remain some heavy clouds on our global understanding, especially on galaxy scales, which we review here. While some of these clouds might…
In this pedestrian approach I give my personal point of view on the various problems posed by dark matter in the universe. After a brief historical overview I discuss the various solutions stemming from high energy particle physics, and the…
From astronomical observations, we know that dark matter exists, makes up 23% of the mass budget of the Universe, clusters strongly to form the load-bearing frame of structure for galaxy formation, and hardly interacts with ordinary matter…
Constantly accumulating observational data continue to confirm that about 70% of the energy density today consists of dark energy responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe. We present recent observational bounds on dark…
It is a puzzle why the densities of dark matter and dark energy are nearly equal today when they scale so differently during the expansion of the universe. This conundrum may be solved if there is a coupling between the two dark sectors. In…
It is generally assumed that the two dark components of the energy density of the universe, a smooth component called dark energy and a fluid of nonrelativistic weakly interacting particles called dark matter, are independent of each other…
A grand challenge of the 21st century cosmology is to accurately estimate the cosmological parameters of our Universe. A major approach to estimating the cosmological parameters is to use the large-scale matter distribution of the Universe.…
This paper presents a brief review of the evidence for dark matter in the Universe on the scales of galaxies. In the interests of critically and objectively testing the dark matter paradigm on these scales, this evidence is weighed against…
The majority of the matter in the universe is still unidentified and under investigation by both direct and indirect means. Many experiments searching for the recoil of dark-matter particles off target nuclei in underground laboratories…