Related papers: Molecular dark matter in galaxies
The density of cosmic rays inside molecular clouds determines the ionization rate in the dense cores where stars form. It is also one of the drivers of astrochemistry leading to the creation of complex molecules. Through Fermi Large Area…
Stars like our Sun and planets like our Earth form in dense regions within interstellar molecular clouds, called pre-stellar cores (PSCs). PSCs provide the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation. In the past 15…
In the cold dark matter scenario, the smallest dark matter halos may be earth mass or smaller. These microhalos would be the densest dark matter objects in the Universe, making their accurate characterization important for astrophysical…
We study the effect that the dark matter background (DMB) has on the gravitational energy content and, in general, on the star formation efficiency of a molecular cloud (MC). We first analyze the effect that a dark matter halo, described by…
Observations of density profiles of galaxies and clusters constrain the properties of dark matter. Formation of stable halos by collisional fluids with very low mass particles appears as the most probable interpretation, while halos formed…
We show radio continuum images of several molecular complexes in the inner Galaxy and report the presence of dark features that coincide with dense molecular clouds. Unlike infrared dark clouds, these features which we call "radio dark…
Cold Dark Matter (CDM) has become the standard modern theory of cosmological structure formation. Its predictions appear to be in good agreement with data on large scales, and it naturally accounts for many properties of galaxies. But…
In this paper we investigate the level of star formation activity within nearby molecular clouds. We employ a uniform set of infrared extinction maps to provide accurate assessments of cloud mass and structure and compare these with…
The dark energy plus cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological model has been a demonstrably successful framework for predicting and explaining the large-scale structure of Universe and its evolution with time. Yet on length scales…
The development of methods and algorithms to solve the $N$-body problem for classical, collisionless, non-relativistic particles has made it possible to follow the growth and evolution of cosmic dark matter structures over most of the…
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…
There has been renewed interest in the possibility that dark matter exists in the form of atoms, analogous to those of the visible world. An important input for understanding the cosmological consequences of dark atoms is their…
Star formation at earlier cosmological times takes place in an interstellar medium with low metallicity. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is ideally suited to study star formation in such an environment. The physical and chemical state of…
The abundance of dark matter satellites and subhalos, the existence of density cusps at the centers of dark matter halos, and problems producing realistic disk galaxies in simulations are issues that have raised concerns about the viability…
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…
Using a source selection biased towards high mass star forming regions, we used a Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) code to calculate the H2 densities and CS column densities for a sample of Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) 8 micron infrared…
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…
Cold Dark Matter (CDM) has become the standard modern theory of cosmological structure formation. Its predictions appear to be in good agreement with data on large scales, and it naturally accounts for many properties of galaxies. But…
Stars form within molecular clouds, so characterizing the physical states of molecular clouds is key in understanding the process of star formation. Cloud structure and stability is frequently assessed using metrics including the virial…
The main achievements, current developments and prospects of molecular studies in external galaxies are reviewed. They are put in the context of the results of several decades of studies of molecules in local interstellar medium, their…