Related papers: A Quark-Matter Dominated Universe
Over the past decade, a consensus picture has emerged in which roughly a quarter of the universe consists of dark matter. The observational evidence for the existence of dark matter is reviewed: rotation curves of galaxies, weak lensing…
The "dark age" of the Universe is generally pointed out as the period between the recombination epoch and the horizon of current observations (z=5-6). The arrow of time in the cosmic history describes the progression from simplicity to…
A recent understanding on how quantum effects may affect black-hole evolution opens new scenarios for dark matter, in connection with the presence of black holes in the very early universe. Quantum fluctuations of the geometry allow for…
The hypothesis that dark matter consists of superheavy particles with the mass close to the Grand Unification scale is investigated. These particles were created from vacuum by the gravitation of the expanding Universe and their decay led…
Models of structure formation in the universe postulate that matter distributions observed today in galaxy catalogs arise, through a complex non-linear dynamics, by gravitational evolution from a very uniform initial state. Dark matter…
The origin of supermassive black holes in the galactic nuclei is quite uncertain in spite of extensive set of observational data. We review the known scenarios of galactic and cosmological formation of supermassive black holes. The common…
We consider the role of secondary infall and accretion onto an initially overdense perturbation in matter-dominated eras, like the one which is likely to follow the end of inflation. We show that primordial black holes may form through…
One signature of an expanding universe is the time-variation of the cosmological abundances of its different components. For example, a radiation-dominated universe inevitably gives way to a matter-dominated universe, and critical moments…
It is now, generally, believed that the presence of some form of dark matter is essential to explain the flat rotation curves of galaxies, and anomalous large velocities of galaxies in the clusters and superclusters. This dark matter turns…
Black holes, an extreme consequence of the mathematics of General Relativity, have long been suspected of being the prime movers of quasars, which emit more energy than any other objects in the Universe. Recent evidence indicates that…
In this paper it is suggested that inclusion of mutual gravitational interactions among the particles in the early dense universe can lead to a 'pre-big bang' scenario, with particle masses greater than the Planck mass implying an…
Phase transitions in the early universe are prime settings for the production of primordial black holes, since they can break the relatively quiescent homogeneity and isotropy of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmologies. These epochs of…
The standard theory of cosmic structure formation posits that the present-day rich structure of the Universe developed through gravitational amplification of tiny matter density fluctuations generated in its very early history. Recent…
[Abridged] Over the past two decades observations and theoretical simulations have established a global frame-work of galaxy formation and evolution in the young Universe. Galaxies formed as baryonic gas cooled at the centres of collapsing…
We highlight the general scenario of dark matter freeze-out whilst the energy density of the universe is dominated by a decoupled non-relativistic species. Decoupling during matter domination changes the freeze-out dynamics, since the…
The large-scale structure of the Universe formed from initially small perturbations in the cosmic density field, leading to galaxy clusters with up to 10^15 Msun at the present day. Here, we review the formation of structures in the…
The standard model of particle physics is marvelously successful. However, it is obviously not a complete or final theory. I shall argue here that the structure of the standard model gives some quite concrete, compelling hints regarding…
The hypothesis is rapidly gaining popularity that the dark energy pervading our universe is extra-repulsive ($-p>\rho$). The density of such a substance(usually called phantom energy) grows with the cosmological expansion and may become…
A new family of nonrelativistic, Newtonian, non-quantum equilibrium configurations describing galactic halos is introduced, by considering strange quark matter conglomerates with masses larger than about 8 GeV as new possible components of…
After recalling some puzzles in cosmology and briefly reviewing the Friedmann-Lema\^itre cosmos a simple unified model of the ``Dark Sector'' is described. This model involves a scalar field and a pseudo-scalar axion field that give rise to…