Related papers: Dark Matter Candidates
Ordinary matter-including particles such as protons and neutrons-accounts for only about one sixth of all matter in the Universe. The rest is dark matter, which does not emit or absorb light but plays a fundamental role in galaxy and…
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…
Dark matter is one of the pillars of the current standard model of structure formation: it is assumed to constitute most of the matter in the Universe. However, it can so far only be probed indirectly through its gravitational effects, and…
Dark matter accounts for 26% of the mass-energy density of the Universe, however, its nature and origins remain the most important open questions in physics. The search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), one of the leading…
The dark sector of the Universe is beginning to be clarified step by step. If the dark energy is vacuum energy, then 123 orders are exactly reduced by ordinary physical processes. For many years these unexplained orders were called a crisis…
Our standard model of the Universe predicts the distribution of dark matter to $1\%$ at the scales needed for upcoming experiments, yet our predictions for how the luminous matter -- which has interactions besides gravity -- is distributed…
The nature of dark matter (DM), which is supposed to constitute about one-fourth of the universe, is still a mystery. There is evidence that much of the DM may be made up of as yet undiscovered particles with several experiments all over…
It is now, generally, believed that the presence of some form of dark matter is essential to explain the flat rotation curves of galaxies, and anomalous large velocities of galaxies in the clusters and superclusters. This dark matter turns…
The origin of the galaxies represents an important focus of current cosmological research, both observational and theoretical. Its resolution involves a comprehensive understanding of star formation, galaxy dynamics, the cosmology of the…
Mankind has not yet explained dark matter, the accelerating expansion of the Universe, the 'knee' and 'ankle' of the cosmic ray energy spectrum graph, the low star formation rates of low surface brightness (LSB) dwarf galaxies, the ignition…
The hypothesis that dark matter consists of superheavy particles with the mass close to the Grand Unification scale is investigated. These particles were created from vacuum by the gravitation of the expanding Universe and their decay led…
The cosmological dust has begun to settle. A likely picture is a universe comprised (predominantly) of three components: ordinary baryons ($\Omega_B \approx 0.05$), non-baryonic dark matter ($\Omega_{Dark} \approx 0.22$) and dark energy…
These lectures have been given to particle physicists, mostly experimentalists and very briefly and at a pedestrian level review the problems of dark matter. The content of the lectures is the following: 1. Introduction. 2. Cosmological…
As cosmology has entered a phase of precision experiments, the content of the universe has been established to contain interesting and not yet fully understood components, namely dark energy and dark matter. While the cause and exact nature…
Observations show that about the 20% of the Universe is composed by invisible (dark) matter (DM), for which many candidates have been proposed. In particular, the anomalous behavior of rotational curves of galaxies (i.e. the flattening at…
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…
The nature of the dark matter in the haloes of galaxies is one of the outstanding questions in astrophysics. All stellar candidates, until recently thought to be likely baryonic contributions to the Halo of our Galaxy, are shown to be ruled…
Numerous observations point towards the existence of an unknown elementary particle with no electromagnetic interactions, a large population of which was presumably produced in the early stages of the history of the Universe. This so-called…
One of the major challenges of modern physics is to decipher the nature of dark matter. Astrophysical observations provide ample evidence for the existence of an invisible and dominant mass component in the observable universe, from the…
The observed excess of gravitational forces in galaxies and galactic clusters is usually referred as the existence of "dark matter particles" of unknown origin. An alternative explanation of the dark matter effect is presented here by…