Related papers: Mapping luminous and dark matter in the Universe
Over the past three years we have determined the basic features of our Universe. It is spatially flat; accelerating; comprised of 1/3 a new form of matter, 2/3 a new form of energy, with some ordinary matter and a dash of massive neutrinos;…
One of the great mysteries of contemporary science is dark matter, an exotic substance of unknown nature that, in theory, makes up about 27\% of the total mass-energy density of the universe, and which does not appear to emit, absorb, or…
About 80\% of the mass of the present Universe is made up of the unknown (dark matter), while the rest is made up of ordinary matter. It is a very intriguing question why the {\it mass} densities of dark matter and ordinary matter (mainly…
The current understanding of dark matter comes largely from measurements of the total matter content in the universe, from the distribution of gravitating matter on very large scales, and from rotation curves and velocity dispersions on…
More than sixty years ago Zwicky made the case that the great clusters of galaxies are held together by the gravitational force of unseen (dark) matter. Today, the case is stronger and more precise: Dark, nonbaryonic matter accounts for 30%…
The observational evidence for dark matter on progressively larger cosmic scales is reviewed in a rather pedagogical fashion. Although the emphasis is on dark matter in galaxies and in clusters of galaxies, its cosmological evidence as well…
Modern astrophysical and cosmological models are plagued with two severe theoretical difficulties, namely, the dark energy and the dark matter problems. Relative to the former, high-precision observational data have confirmed with startling…
The identification of the nature of dark matter is one of the most important problems confronting particle physics. Current observational constraints permit the mass of the dark matter to range from $10^{-22}$ eV - $10^{48}$ GeV. Given the…
Large surveys of the local Universe have shown that galaxies with different intrinsic properties, such as colour, luminosity and morphological type display a range of clustering amplitudes. Galaxies are therefore not faithful tracers of the…
For a few years now, cosmology has a standard model. By this term, we mean a consistent theoretical background which is at the same time simple and broad enough to offer coherent explanations for the vast majority of cosmological phenomena.…
The discrepancy between dynamical mass measures of objects such as galaxies and the observed distribution of luminous matter in the universe is typically explained by invoking an unseen ``dark matter'' component. Dark matter must…
The spatial distributions of luminous and dark matter in massive early-type galaxies reflect the formation processes which shaped these systems. This article reviews the predictions of cosmological simulations for the dark and baryonic…
The recent observational evidence for the current cosmic acceleration have stimulated renewed interest in alternative cosmologies, such as scenarios with interaction in the dark sector (dark matter and dark energy). In general, such models…
The fact that dark matter (DM), thus far, has revealed itself only on scales of galaxies and larger, again thrusts onto astrophysics the opportunity and the responsibility to confront the age old mystery "What is the nature of matter?" By…
Cosmological surveys aim at answering fundamental questions about our Universe, including the nature of dark matter or the reason of unexpected accelerated expansion of the Universe. In order to answer these questions, two important…
We discuss a model of the universe where dark energy is replaced by electrically-charged extremely-massive dark matter. The cosmological constant has a value of the same order as the mean matter density, consistent with observations, and is…
We investigate structure formation in a one dimensional model of a matter-dominated universe using a quasi-newtonian formulation. In addition to dark matter, luminous matter is introduced to examine the potential bias in the distributions.…
The current standard model of cosmology assumes that the majority of matter in the Universe is made of dark matter, and that the latter is fundamentally different from ordinary matter. Dark matter can in principle explain the rotation of…
I consider some of the issues we face in trying to understand dark energy. Huge fluctuations in the unknown dark energy equation of state can be hidden in distance data, so I argue that model-independent tests which signal if the…
The acceleration of the expansion of the universe has deep implications for structure formation, the composition of the universe, and its fate. Roughly 70% of the energy density is in a dark energy, whose nature remains unknown. Mapping the…