Related papers: Comments on "Dark matter: A phenomenological exist…
Dark matter, a conjectured substance not directly observable but which has tremendous mass, was proposed to explain why galaxies hold together and rotate faster at their edges than predicted by Newton's Inverse Square (1/r2) Law of Gravity.…
If it is hypothesised that there is no dark matter then some alternative gravitational theory must take the place of general relativity (GR) on the largest scales. Dynamical measurements can be used to investigate the nature of such a…
An effective theory of dark matter offers an attractive framework for global analyses of dark matter. In the light of global fits we test the validity of the link between the non-relativistic dark matter annihilation, or the predicted relic…
We consider a model of the Universe in which the matter content is in the form of discrete islands, rather than a continuous fluid. In the appropriate limits the resulting large-scale dynamics approach those of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker…
The standard framework within which cosmological measurements are confronted and interpreted nowadays, called Lambda Cold Dark Matter, presents a Universe dominated by unknown forms of energy and matter. My Thesis is devoted to investigate…
The Standard Cosmological Model of the 1980's is no more. I describe the definitive evidence that the density of matter is insufficient to result in a flat universe, as well as the mounting evidence that the cosmological constant is not…
Observational evidence for dark matter stems from its gravitational interactions, and as of yet there has been no evidence for dark matter interacting via other means. We examine models where dark matter interactions are purely…
The origin of dark matter as a thermal relic offers a compelling way in which the early universe was initially populated by dark matter. Alternative explanations typically appear exotic compared to the simplicity of thermal production.…
The Hubble law, determined from the distance modulii and redshifts of galaxies, for the past 80 years, has been used as strong evidence for an expanding universe. This claim is reviewed in light of the claimed lack of necessary evidence for…
The nature of the dark matter in the Universe is one of the hardest unsolved problems in modern physics. Indeed, on one hand, the overwhelming indirect evidence from astrophysics seems to leave no doubt about its existence; on the other…
Although dark matter is a central element of modern cosmology, the history of how it became accepted as part of the dominant paradigm is often ignored or condensed into a brief anecdotical account focused around the work of a few pioneering…
The inability of primordial baryonic density fluctuations, as observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), to grow into the present day astronomical structures is well established, under Newtonian and Einsteinian gravity. It is hence…
Ordinary baryonic particles (such as protons and neutrons) account for only one-sixth of the total matter in the Universe. The remainder is a mysterious "dark matter" component, which does not interact via the electromagnetic force and thus…
An alternative way of explaining astrophysical observations without dark matter is proposed. In the braneworld scenario, where our universe is visualised as a 4-dimensional hypersurface embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime, the…
Higher order curvature gravity has recently received a lot of attention due to the fact that it gives rise to cosmological models which seem capable of solving dark energy and quintessence issues without using "ad hoc" scalar fields. Such…
Physics invites the idea that space contains energy whose gravitational effect approximates that of Einstein's cosmological constant, Lambda; nowadays the concept is termed dark energy or quintessence. Physics also suggests the dark energy…
A comet-like, but magnitudes smaller, extremely low albedo interstellar meteoroid population of fragile aggregates with solar type composition, measured in space and terrestrially, is most probably the universal dark matter. Although…
The dark energy-cold dark matter paradigm ($\Lambda$CDM) has gained widespread acceptance because it explains the pattern of anisotropies observed in the cosmic microwave background radiation, the observed distribution of large scale…
Some observational consequences of a cosmological scenario driven by adiabatic matter creation are investigated. Exact expressions for the lookback time, age of the universe, luminosity distance, angular diameter, and galaxy number counts…
We investigate observational tests that can be used to distinguish between broad classes of cosmological models. This is achieved using curvature-consistency tests of the Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) models, which we…