Related papers: A quest for weak objects and for invisible stars
White dwarf binaries are the most common compact binaries in the Universe and are especially important for low-frequency gravitational wave detectors such as LISA. There are a number of open questions about binary evolution and the Galactic…
Microlensing events towards the Large Magellanic Cloud entail that a sizable fraction of dark matter is in the form of MACHOs (Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects), presumably located in the halo of the Galaxy. Within the present…
In the past few years, astronomers have uncovered several very low-temperature, metal-poor stars with halo or thick disk kinematics and peculiar spectral and photometric properties, so-called ultracool subdwarfs. These include the first…
Observations made using COBE, SCUBA, ISO and MAMBO have provided a reasonable working knowledge of both the intensity of the submm and far-infrared background radiation and the source counts of luminous high-redshift dusty galaxies.…
Dark matter is one of the main goals of neutrino astronomy. At present, there are two big neutrino telescopes based on the Cherenkov technique in ice and water: IceCube at the South Pole and ANTARES in the northern hemisphere. Both…
Ibata et al (1999) have recently discovered faint, moving objects in the Hubble Deep Field. The quantity, magnitudes and proper motions of these objects are consistent with old white dwarfs making up the Galactic dark halo. We review a…
We suggest a new component of the Milky Way galaxy that can account for both the optical depth and the event durations obtained by the MACHO microlensing survey toward the Large Magellanic Cloud. This component is consistent with recent…
Our understanding of the Universe today includes overwhelming observational evidence for the existence of an elusive form of matter that is generally referred to as dark. Although many theories have been developed to describe its nature,…
Collective Shapiro Phase Shift on the period of the pulsars due to a dark object (a passing MACHO or a planet) along the line-of-sight of one or more pulsar is a formidable gravitational tool to discover dark matter.We already noted that…
Low luminosity dwarf galaxies provide stringent constraints on the nature of dark matter. Establishing these constraints depends on precise kinematic measurements of individual stars. In this overview for non-specialists, we describe…
Dwarf satellite galaxies are a key probe of dark matter and of galaxy formation on small scales and of the dark matter halo masses of their central galaxies. They have very low surface brightness, which makes it difficult to identify and…
The dwarf galaxy companions to the Milky Way are unique cosmological laboratories. With luminosities as low as 10^-7 L_MW, they inhabit the lowest mass dark matter halos known to host stars and are presently the most direct tracers of the…
I will begin by reviewing the evidence for Dark Matter in the Universe, as well as the candidates for dark matter. At most 20% of the dark matter in galaxies can be in the form of MACHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects); the remainder appears…
The main aim of microlensing experiments is to evaluate the mean mass of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) and the mass fraction of the Galactic halo made by this type of dark matter. Statistical analysis shows that by considering a…
Submillimetre continuum radiation allows us to probe cold objects, particularly the earliest, dusty phases of star formation, high-redshift galaxies and circumstellar disks. The submillimetre window gives a unique view of the physical and…
We explore the nature of the faint blue objects in the Hubble Deep Field South. We have derived proper motions for the point sources in the Hubble Deep Field South using a 3 year baseline. Combining our proper motion measurements with…
Over the past five years, searches in Sloan Digital Sky Survey data have more than doubled the number of known dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, and have revealed a population of ultra-faint galaxies with luminosities smaller than…
It is well known that alternative theories to the Standard Model allow -- and sometimes require -- fundamental constants, such as the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$, to vary in spacetime. We demonstrate that one way to investigate these…
We review the status of indirect Dark Matter searches, focusing in particular on the connection with gamma-ray Astrophysics, and on the prospects for detection with the upcoming space telescope GLAST and Air Cherenkov Telescopes such as…
The possibility that Galactic halo MACHOs are white dwarfs has recently attracted much attention. Using the known properties of white dwarf binaries in the Galactic disk as a model, we estimate the possible contribution of halo white dwarf…