Related papers: From Strings Theory to the Dark Matter in Galaxies
We investigate scalar-tensor theories, motivated by dark energy models, in the strong gravity regime around the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. In such theories general relativity is modified since the scalar field couples to…
We consider braneworld scenarios including the leading correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action suggested by superstring theory, the Gauss-Bonnet term. We obtain and study the complete set of equations governing the cosmological dynamics.…
I discuss cosmological models either derived from, or inspired by, string theory or M-theory. In particular I discuss solutions in the low-energy effective theory and the role of the dilaton, moduli and antisymmetric form fields in the…
Dark matter has been introduced to explain mass deficits noted at different astronomical scales, in galaxies, groups of galaxies, clusters, superclusters and even across the full horizon. Dark matter makes itself felt only through its…
We study numerically the gravitational field of a star made of massive and neutral string states for the case in which the dilaton is massive. The solution exhibits very simple scaling properties in the dilaton mass. There is no horizon and…
A novel generalisation of the Dirac-Born-Infeld string scenario is described. It is shown that matter residing on the moving brane is dark and has the so-called disformal coupling to gravity. This gives rise to cosmologies where dark matter…
Beginning with a geometric motivation for dark matter going back to the axioms of general relativity, we show how scalar field dark matter, which naturally forms dark matter density waves due to its wave nature, may cause the observed…
We study static configurations of dark matter coupled to a scalar field responsible for the dark energy of the Universe. The dark matter is modelled as a Fermi gas within the Thomas-Fermi approximation. The mass of the dark matter particles…
Astronomers have been using the measured luminosity to estimate the {\em luminous mass} of stars, based on empirically established mass-to-light ratio which seems to be only applicable to a special class of stars---the main-sequence…
The nature of dark matter is one of the outstanding questions of astrophysics. The internal motions of member stars reveal that the lowest luminosity galaxies in the Local Group are the most dark-matter dominated. New large datasets allow…
Some aspects of the theory of cosmological perturbations from cosmic strings and other topological defects are outlined, with particular reference to a simple example: a spatially flat CDM-dominated universe. The conserved energy-momentum…
String cosmology aims at providing a reliable description of the very early Universe in the regime where standard-model physics is no longer appropriate, and where we can safely apply the basic ingredients of superstring models such as…
Brane inflation predicts the production of cosmic superstrings with tension 10^{-12}<G\mu<10^{-7}. Superstring theory predicts also the existence of a dilaton with a mass that is at most of the order of the gravitino mass. We show that the…
Scalar-tensor theories are promising dark energy models. A promising scalar-tensor theory, called Horndeski-like gravity, is coming from the application of the Horndeski gravity in string theory and cosmology that takes into account two…
We study some possible astrophysical implications of a very weakly coupled ultralight dilaton-type scalar field. Such a field may develop an (approximately stable) network of domain walls. The domain wall thickness is assumed to be…
Cosmic strings with small-scale structure have a coarse-grained mass per unit length $\mu$ which is larger than the string tension. This leads to an effective Newtonian gravitational line source and to a characteristic translational…
`Old' String Theory is a theory of one-dimensional extended objects, whose vibrations correspond to excitations of various target-space field modes including gravity. In these lectures I will give an introduction to low-energy Effective…
We study the effect of the geometry and topology of a scalar-tensor cosmic string space-time on the electric and magnetic fields of line sources. It is shown that the dilatonic coupling of the gravity induces effects along the string…
Non-linear gravitational clustering in a universe dominated by dark energy, modelled by a `quintessence' scalar field, and cold dark matter with space-time varying mass is studied. Models of this type, where the variable mass is induced by…
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…