Related papers: Can the Dark Matter be $10^6$ Solar Mass Objects?
The evolution of dark matter in central areas of galaxies is considered (the Milky Way is taken as an example). It is driven by scattering off of dark matter particles by bulge stars, their absorption by the supermassive black hole and…
The central part of a dark matter halo reacts to the presence and evolution of a bar. Not only does the halo absorb angular momentum from the disk, it can also be compressed and have its shape modified. We study these issues in a series of…
Neutralino dark matter leads to the formation of numerous earth mass dark matter haloes at redshifts z\approx 60 (Diemand et al. 2005). These abundant CDM micro-haloes have cuspy density profiles that can easily withstand the Galactic tidal…
Microlensing searches aim to detect compact halo dark matter via its gravitational lensing effect on stars within the Large Magellanic Cloud. The most recent results have led to the claim that roughly one fifth of the galactic halo dark…
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…
We review the most recent evidence for the amazing properties of the density distribution of dark matter around spiral galaxies. Their rotation curves, coadded according to the galaxy luminosity, conform to an universal profile which can be…
Paczy\'nski (1986) suggested that ``dark" objects in the halo of our Galaxy could enhance the luminosity of foreground stars, acting as gravitational microlenses. Such events has been recently reported by different collaborations. We assume…
Recent observations have discovered star formation activities in the extreme outer regions of disk galaxies. However it remains unclear what physical mechanisms are responsible for triggering star formation in such low-density gaseous…
The recent astrometric data of hundreds of millions of stars from Gaia DR3 has allowed a precise determination of the Milky Way rotation curve up to $28$~kpc. The data suggests a rapid decline in the density of dark matter beyond $19$~kpc.…
We examine the possibility that galactic halos are collisionless ensembles of scalar field ``massive compact halo objects'' (MACHOs). Using mass constraints from MACHO microlensing and from theoretical arguments on halos made up of massive…
To reveal the galactic dark matter in the form of MACHOs ("Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects"), the POINT-AGAPE collaboration is carrying out a search for gravitational microlensing towards M31. A clear microlensing signal is…
Dark matter heating in planets has been proposed as a potential probe for dark matter detection. Assuming near-equilibrium conditions, we find that the energy input from dark matter raises planetary temperatures and accelerates rotation.…
Axionic dark matter can form miniclusters and minicluster halos from inhomogenuities in the early Universe. If MCHs are sufficiently massive, their existence can be revealed by small-scale gravitational tidal perturbation to halo-like…
If even a relatively small number of black holes were created in the early universe, they will constitute an increasingly large fraction of the total energy density as space expands. It is thus well-motivated to consider scenarios in which…
Assuming that (1) the universe underwent a post-inflationary accelerated expansion phase driven by a fluid with equation of state $P=w\rho$ and $-1<w<-1/3$, that (2) the cosmic horizon in an accelerating, quasi-de Sitter universe has a…
We consider the contribution of neutron stars and black holes to the dynamical mass of galactic halos. In particular, we show that if these compact objects were produced by an early generation of stars with initial metallicity less than…
If compact baryonic objects contribute significantly to the dark matter in our Galaxy, their mass function will present vital clues for galaxy formation theories and star formation processes in the early Universe. Here we discuss what one…
We investigate in detail the mass distribution obtained by means of high resolution rotation curves of 25 galaxies of different morphological types. The dark matter contribution to the circular rotation velocity is well-described by…
A discussion at a Scientific American level of the idea that the constituents of the dark mater in galactic halos are primordial intermediate-mass black holes with masses between ten and one hundred thousand times the solar mass.
We study the impact of molecular (${\rm H_2}$) and atomic (HI) hydrogen cooling on the galaxy formation threshold. We calculate the fraction of dark matter (DM) halos that exceeds a critical mass required for star formation,…