相关论文: Cosmological Constraints on Light (but Massive) Re…
Standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis at baryonic density as inferred by WMAP implies a primordial Li7 abundance factor of two to three larger than that inferred by observations of low--metallicity halo stars. Recent observations of Li6 in halo…
After a short introduction on particle candidates for dark matter within possible extensions of the standard model, we concentrate on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, and on one of their most interesting physical realizations: the…
Lyman Limit systems (LLSs) trace the low-density circumgalactic medium and the most dense regions of the intergalactic medium, so their number density and evolution at high redshift, just after reionisation, are important to constrain. We…
In this thesis, I describe a number of recent important developments in neutrino cosmology on three fronts. Firstly, focusing on Large-Scale Structure (LSS) data, I will show that current cosmological probes contain a wealth of information…
There is currently a discrepancy in the measured value of the amplitude of matter clustering, parameterised using $\sigma_8$, inferred from galaxy weak lensing, and cosmic microwave background data, which could be an indication of new…
We investigate constraints on scalar dark matter (DM) by analyzing the Lyman-alpha forest, which probes structure formation at medium and small scales, and also by studying its cosmological consequences at high and low redshift. For scalar…
Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry we have searched a sample of 300 compact radio sources for examples of multiple imaging produced by gravitational lensing; no multiple images were found with separations in the angular range 1.5--50…
Weak gravitational lensing (WL) has been established as one of the most promising probes of cosmology. So far, most studies have exploited the shear effect of WL leading to coherent distortions of galaxy shapes. But WL also introduces…
We present brief synopses of supersymmetric models where either the neutralino composition or its mass is adjusted so that thermal relic neutralinos from the Big Bang saturate the measured abundance of cold dark matter in the universe. We…
The possibility to use $\gamma$--ray data from the Galactic Center (GC) to constrain the cosmological evolution of the Universe in a phase prior to primordial nucleosyntesis, namely around the time of cold dark matter (CDM) decoupling, is…
Recent high-resolution simulations that include Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and baryons have shown that baryonic physics can dramatically alter the dark matter structure of galaxies. These results modify our predictions for observed galaxy…
In a non-standard cosmological scenario, heavy, long-lived particles, which we call moduli, dominate the energy density prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) may be produced non-thermally from…
We present and compare several cosmological constraints on the cross section for elastic scattering between dark matter (DM) and baryons, for cross sections with a range of power-law dependences on the DM-baryon relative velocity $v$,…
Recent cosmological data allow to determine the universal Dark Matter (DM) density to a precision of about 10%, if a simple, well-motivated ansatz for the spectrum of primordial density perturbations is correct. Not surprisingly, a thermal…
A significant lower limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino \chi can be obtained by combining the results from sparticle searches at LEP at centre-of-mass energies up to 172 GeV with cosmological considerations, if it is assumed that…
A laboratory detection of a sterile neutrino could provide the first indication of the evolution of the Universe before Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), an epoch yet untested. Such "visible" sterile neutrinos are observable in upcoming…
As one of the fundamental unknowns of our Universe, the mass of dark matter remains to be a topic of great interest. We consider the possibility of a time-variation of the dark matter mass. We study the cosmological constraints on a model…
A host of dark energy models and non-standard cosmologies predict an enhanced Hubble rate in the early Universe: perfectly viable models, which satisfy Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), cosmic microwave background and general relativity…
This study introduces novel constraints on the free-streaming of thermal relic warm dark matter (WDM) from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest flux power spectra. Our analysis utilises a high-resolution, high-redshift sample of quasar spectra observed…
Cluster strong lensing cosmography is a promising probe of the background geometry of the Universe and several studies have emerged, thanks to the increased quality of observations using space and ground-based telescopes. For the first…