Related papers: Planetary-Mass Dark Matter?
The Milky Way Galaxy contains a large, spherical component which is believed to harbor a substantial amount of unseen matter. Recent observations indirectly suggest that as much as half of this ``dark matter'' may be in the form of old,…
Dark matter (DM) can be captured in celestial bodies after scattering and losing sufficient energy to become gravitationally bound. We derive a general framework that describes the current DM distribution inside celestial objects, which…
After two decades of efforts to identify the enigmatic dark matter that comprises the dominant form of matter in our galaxy, the mass range for viable candidates appears to have been reduced by more than 50 orders of magnitude. Positive…
We propose that the ``isolated'' planetary mass objects observed by Zapatero Osorio et al in the $\sigma$ Orionis cluster might actually be in orbit around invisible stellar mass companions such as mirror stars. Mirror matter is expected to…
We discuss the formation of dark compact objects in a dark matter environment in view of the possible mass dependence of pulsars on the distribution of dark matter in the Galaxy. Our results indicate that the pulsar masses should decrease…
Experimental observations and theoretical arguments at Galaxy and larger scales have suggested that a large fraction of the Universe is composed by Dark Matter particles. This has motivated the DAMA experimental efforts to investigate the…
There is strong evidence that the mass in the Universe is dominated by dark matter, which exerts gravitational attraction but whose exact nature is unknown. In particular, all galaxies are believed to be embedded in massive haloes of dark…
The failure to find evidence for elementary particles that could serve as the constituents of dark matter brings to mind suggestions that dark matter might consist of massive compact objects (MACHOs). In particular, it has recently been…
Laboratory experiments, large-scale computer simulations and observational cosmology have begun to make progress in the campaign to identify the particle responsible for gravitationally-inferred dark matter. In this contribution we discuss…
Over the past few decades, a consensus picture has emerged in which roughly a quarter of the universe consists of dark matter. I begin with a review of the observational evidence for the existence of dark matter: rotation curves of…
Observations by the MACHO collaboration suggest that a significant proportion of the galactic halo dark matter is in the form of compact objects with typical masses $M\sim 0.5M_{\odot}$. One of the current mysteries is the nature and origin…
For the past forty years the search for dark matter has been one of the primary foci of astrophysics, although there has yet to be any direct evidence for its existence (Porter et al. 2011). Indirect evidence for the existence of dark…
Dark matter is a fundamental constituent of the universe, which is needed to explain a wide variety of astrophysical and cosmological observations. Although the existence of dark matter was first postulated nearly a century ago and its…
In this article we address the mystery of dark matter. We expound the various evidences, astrophysical and cosmological, leading to hypothesize the existence of an invisible form of matter, whose attempts at detecting it have so far all…
Clumped dark matter arises naturally within the framwork of generic cosmological dark matter models. Invoking the existence of dark matter clumps can also solve may unexplained mysteries in astrophysics and geology or geophysics, eg. the…
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…
Small-scale clumps of dark matter are gravitationally bounded structures that have masses comparable to or lower than stellar masses and consist of noninteracting or weakly interacting dark matter particles. In this paper, the current…
All galaxies are thought to reside within large halos of dark matter, whose properties can only be determined from indirect observations. The formation and assembly of galaxies is determined from the interplay between these dark matter…
A review of the development of the concept of dark matter is given. I begin the review with the description of the discovery of the mass paradox in our Galaxy and in clusters of galaxies. In mid 1970s the amount of observational data was…
Dark matter in galaxies, its abundance, and its distribution remain a subject of long-standing discussion, especially in view of the fact that neither dark matter particles nor dark matter bodies have yet been found. Experts' opinions range…