Related papers: The Dark Matter problem
After explaining the motivation for this article, I briefly recapitulate the methods used to determine, somewhat coarsely, the rotation curves of our Milky Way Galaxy and other spiral galaxies, especially in their outer parts, and the…
An overview is given of various dark matter candidates. Among the many suggestions given in the literature, axions, inert Higgs doublet, sterile neutrinos, supersymmetric particles and Kaluza-Klein particles are discussed. The situation has…
Astrophysical observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. In the coming decade, astrophysical observations will guide other experimental efforts, while simultaneously probing unique regions of dark…
This work investigates the dark matters structures that form on the smallest cosmological scales. We find that the types and abundances of structures which form at approximately Earth-mass scales are very sensitive to the nature of dark…
We still do not have a "standard" model for the mass distribution of spiral galaxies. I review various methods used to delimit the range of values of the mass-to-light ratio of the disk, such as spiral structure criteria, the influence of…
The ubiquitous presence of dark matter in the universe is today a central tenet in modern cosmology and astrophysics. Ranging from the smallest galaxies to the observable universe, the evidence for dark matter is compelling in dwarfs,…
The complementarity of direct, indirect and collider searches for dark matter has improved our understanding concerning the properties of the dark matter particle. I will review the basic concepts that these methods rely upon and highlight…
We review how dark matter is distributed in our local neighbourhood from an observational and theoretical perspective. We will start by describing first the dark matter halo of our own galaxy and in the Local Group. Then we proceed to…
The success of the Lambda-CDM model on large scales does not extend down to galaxy scales. We list a dozen problems of the dark matter hypothesis, some of which arise in specific models for the formation of structure in the universe, while…
The gravitational field of Spiral galaxies is well traced by their rotation curves. Only recently it has become of extreme interest that the latter form a family ruled by two parameters of the {\it luminous} component: the disk length-scale…
The identity of dark matter is one of the key outstanding problems in both particle and astrophysics. In this thesis, I review some candidates of dark matter, especially WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) which is one of the best…
Dark matter particles populating our galactic halo could be directly detected by measuring their scattering off target nuclei or electrons in a suitable detector. As this interaction is expected to occur with very low probability and would…
In this non-specialist review I look at how weak lensing can provide information on the dark sector of the Universe. The review concentrates on what can be learned about Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Dark Gravity, and why. On Dark Matter,…
The quark matter may have great implications in astrophysical studies, which could appear in the early Universe, in compact stars, and/or as cosmic rays. After a general review of astrophysical quark matter, the density-dominated quark…
In spiral galaxies, we explain their non-Keplerian rotation curves (RCs) by means of a non-luminous component embedding their stellar-gaseous disks. Understanding the detailed properties of this component (labelled Dark Matter, DM) is one…
One of the great mysteries of contemporary science is dark matter, an exotic substance of unknown nature that, in theory, makes up about 27\% of the total mass-energy density of the universe, and which does not appear to emit, absorb, or…
Despite significant experimental sensitivity to point-like, weakly interacting particles at the electroweak mass scale, dark matter has not been found yet. This could hint at a more complex dark sector with multiple states or composite dark…
The astronomical dark matter is an essential component of the Universe and yet its nature is still unresolved. It could be made of neutral and massive elementary particles which are their own antimatter partners. These dark matter species…
Using high-accuracy rotation curves of spiral galaxies, we derive distributions of the surface mass density. Comparing with the luminosity profiles, we show that the dark mass in disk and bulge distributions follows those of luminous…
We review the theoretical framework underlying models of asymmetric dark matter, describe astrophysical constraints which arise from observations of neutron stars, and discuss the prospects for detecting asymmetric dark matter.