Related papers: Dimensionless constants, cosmology and other dark …
Existing searches for cosmic axions relics have relied heavily on the axion being non-relativistic and making up dark matter. However, light axions can be copiously produced in the early Universe and remain relativistic today, thereby…
A huge amount of good quality astrophysical data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision…
(Abridged) Axisymmetric models of the Milky Way exhibit strong interrelations between the Galactic constants (R_0 and T_0), the stellar columndensity (S_*) and the shape of the dark matter (DM) halo. Here we present analytical relations…
We consider two problems that have vexed physicists for several decades -- dark matter and the cosmological constant. The problem has been that the former has not been detected while the latter gives a far higher value than detected by…
Dark Matter is one of the most intriguing riddles of modern astrophysics. The Standard Cosmological Model implies that only 4.5% of the mass-energy of the Universe is baryonic matter and the remaining 95% is unknown. Of this remainder, 22%…
While, to ensure successful cosmology, dark matter (DM) must kinematically decouple from the standard model plasma very early in the history of the Universe, it can remain coupled to a bath of "dark radiation" until a relatively late epoch.…
Nearly seventy per cent of the energy density in the universe is unclustered and exerts negative pressure. This conclusion -- now supported by numerous observations -- poses the greatest challenge for theoretical physics today. I discuss…
Astronomical observations from small galaxies to the largest scales in the universe can be consistently explained by the simple idea of dark matter. The nature of dark matter is however still unknown. Empirically it cannot be any of the…
We consider cosmological consequences of the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry that is anomalous under technicolor interactions, leading to the emergence of a light axion-like particle. Avoiding overclosure of the universe by such…
WIMPs and axions are the two best motivated candidates to compose the Dark Matter of the Universe. An important number of experimental groups are developing and using different techniques for their direct detection. An updated review of…
The accelerating expansion of the universe is the most surprising cosmological discovery in many decades. In this short review, we briefly summarize theories for the origin of cosmic acceleration and the observational methods being used to…
Axions are produced during a period of dilaton-driven inflation by amplification of quantum fluctuations. We show that for some range of string cosmology parameters and some range of axion masses, primordial axions may constitute a large…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly from the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and indirectly, from measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. Dark energy contributes about 2/3 of the…
For explaining the AMS-02 cosmic positron excess, which was recently reported, we consider a scenario of thermally produced and decaying dark matter (DM) into the standard model (SM) leptons with an extremely small decay rate, \Gamma_{DM}…
The particle that makes up the dark matter of the universe could be an axion or axion-like particle. A collection of axions can condense into a bound Bose-Einstein condensate called an axion star. It is possible that a significant fraction…
The Cold Dark Matter paradigm successfully explains many phenomena on scales larger than galaxies, but seems to predict galaxy halos which are more centrally concentrated and have a lumpier substructure than observed. Endowing cosmic dark…
Axions are candidates for dark matter in the universe.We develop an accurate Boltzmann code to calculate the linear growth of the plasma. As an interesting example, we investigate a mixed dark matter model consisting of cold dark matter…
We investigate the axion dark matter scenario (ADM), in which axions account for all of the dark matter in the Universe, in light of the most recent cosmological data. In particular, we use the Planck temperature data, complemented by WMAP…
We demonstrate that massive fields, such as dark matter, can directly produce a cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants of Nature. We show that a scalar or pseudoscalar (axion-like) dark matter field $\phi$, which forms a…
There is a deep cosmological mystery: although dependent on very different underlying physics, the timescales of structure formation, of galaxy cooling (both radiatively and against the CMB), and of vacuum domination do not differ by many…