In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter
is hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. [1] According to present observations of structures larger than galaxies, as well as Big Bang cosmology, dark matter and dark energy could account for the vast majority of the mass in the observable universe. Dark matter is postulated to partially account for evidence of "missing mass" in the universe, including the rotational speeds of galaxies, orbital velocities of galaxies in clusters, gravitational lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters such as the Bullet Cluster, and the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
Dark matter is believed to play a central role in structure formation and galaxy evolution, and has measurable effects on the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background. All these lines of evidence suggest that galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the universe as a whole contain far more matter than that which interacts with electromagnetic radiation: the remainder is frequently called the "dark matter component," even though there is a small amount of baryonic dark matter.
The dark matter component would have much more mass than the "visible" component of the universe. [2] Only about 4% of the total energy density in the universe (as inferred from gravitational effects) can be observed directly; this includes ordinary baryons and electromagnetic radiation. About 22% is thought to be composed of dark matter. The remaining 74% is thought to consist of dark energy, an even stranger component, distributed diffusely in space. [3] Some hard-to-detect baryonic matter is believed to make a contribution to dark matter but would constitute only a small portion. [4] [5] Determining the nature of this missing mass is one of the most important problems in modern cosmology and particle physics. It has been noted that the names "dark matter" and "dark energy" serve mainly as expressions of human ignorance, much like the marking of early maps with "terra incognita."
The vast majority of the dark matter in the universe is believed to be nonbaryonic, which means that it contains no atoms and that it does not interact with ordinary matter via electromagnetic forces. The nonbaryonic dark matter includes neutrinos, and possibly hypothetical entities such as axions, or supersymmetric particles. Unlike baryonic dark matter, nonbaryonic dark matter does not contribute to the formation of the elements in the early universe ("big bang nucleosynthesis") and so its presence is revealed only via its gravitational attraction. In addition, if the particles of which it is composed are supersymmetric, they can undergo annihilation interactions with themselves resulting in observable by-products such as photons and neutrinos ("indirect detection"). [6]
Nonbaryonic dark matter is classified in terms of the mass of the particle(s) that is assumed to make it up, and/or the typical velocity dispersion of those particles (since more massive particles move more slowly). There are three prominent hypotheses on nonbaryonic dark matter, called Hot Dark Matter (HDM), Warm Dark Matter (WDM), and Cold Dark Matter (CDM); some combination of these is also possible. The most widely discussed models for nonbaryonic dark matter are based on the Cold Dark Matter hypothesis, and the corresponding particle is most commonly assumed to be a neutralino. Hot dark matter might consist of (massive) neutrinos. Cold dark matter would lead to a "bottom-up" formation of structure in the universe while hot dark matter would result in a "top-down" formation scenario. [7]
As important as dark matter is believed to be in the universe, direct evidence of its existence and a concrete understanding of its nature have remained elusive. Though the theory of dark matter remains the most widely accepted theory to explain the anomalies in observed galactic rotation, some alternative theories such as MOND and TeVeS have been proposed. None of these alternatives, however, have garnered equally widespread support in the scientific community.
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DARK MATTER TICKETS
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Observational evidence
The first person to provide evidence and infer the existence of a phenomenon that has come to be called "dark matter" was Swiss astrophysicist
Fritz Zwicky, of the
California Institute of Technology in 1933.
[8] He applied the
virial theorem to the
Coma cluster of galaxies and obtained evidence of unseen mass. Zwicky estimated the cluster's total mass based on the motions of galaxies near its edge and compared that estimate to one based on the number of galaxies and total brightness of the cluster. He found that there was about 400 times more estimated mass than was visually observable. The gravity of the visible galaxies in the cluster would be far too small for such fast orbits, so something extra was required. This is known as the "missing mass problem". Based on these conclusions, Zwicky inferred that there must be some non-visible form of matter which would provide enough of the mass and gravity to hold the cluster together.
Much of the evidence for dark matter comes from the study of the motions of
galaxies.
[9] Many of these appear to be fairly uniform, so by the
virial theorem the total
kinetic energy should be half the total
gravitational binding energy of the galaxies. Experimentally, however, the total kinetic energy is found to be much greater: in particular, assuming the
gravitational mass is due to only the visible matter of the galaxy, stars far from the center of galaxies have much higher velocities than predicted by the
virial theorem.
Galactic rotation curves, which illustrate the velocity of rotation versus the distance from the galactic center, cannot be explained by only the visible matter. Assuming that the visible material makes up only a small part of the cluster is the most straightforward way of accounting for this. Galaxies show signs of being composed largely of a roughly spherically symmetric, centrally concentrated
halo of dark matter with the visible matter concentrated in a disc at the center.
Low surface brightness dwarf galaxies are important sources of information for studying dark matter, as they have an uncommonly low ratio of visible matter to dark matter, and have few bright stars at the center which would otherwise impair observations of the rotation curve of outlying stars.
Gravitational lensing observations of
galaxy clusters allow direct estimates of the gravitational mass based on its effect on light from background galaxies. In clusters such as
Abell 1689, lensing observations confirm the presence of considerably more mass than is indicated by the clusters' light alone. In the
Bullet Cluster, lensing observations show that much of the lensing mass is separated from the X-ray-emitting baryonic mass.
Galactic rotation curves
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For 40 years after Zwicky's initial observations, no other corroborating observations indicated that the
mass to light ratio was anything other than unity (a high mass-to-light ratio indicates the presence of dark matter). Then, in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
Vera Rubin, a young astronomer at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington presented findings based on a new sensitive
spectrograph that could measure the
velocity curve of edge-on
spiral galaxies to a greater degree of accuracy than had ever before been achieved. Together with fellow staff-member
Kent Ford, Rubin announced at a 1975 meeting of the
American Astronomical Society the astonishing discovery that most
stars in
spiral galaxies orbit at roughly the same speed, which implied that their mass densities were uniform well beyond the locations with most of the stars (the
galactic bulge). This result suggests that either
Newtonian gravity does not apply universally or that, conservatively, upwards of 50% of the mass of galaxies was contained in the relatively dark galactic halo. Met with skepticism, Rubin insisted that the observations were correct. Eventually other astronomers began to corroborate her work and it soon became well-established that most galaxies were in fact dominated by "dark matter"; exceptions appeared to be galaxies with mass-to-light ratios close to that of stars. Subsequent to this, numerous observations have been made that do indicate the presence of dark matter in various parts of the cosmos. Together with Rubin's findings for spiral galaxies and Zwicky's work on galaxy clusters, the observational evidence for dark matter has been collecting over the decades to the point that today most astrophysicists accept its existence. As a unifying concept, dark matter is one of the dominant features considered in the analysis of structures on the order of galactic scale and larger.
Velocity dispersions of galaxies
Rubin's pioneering work has stood the test of time. Measurements of velocity curves in spiral galaxies were soon followed up with velocity dispersions of
elliptical galaxies. While sometimes appearing with lower mass-to-light ratios, measurements of ellipticals still indicate a relatively high dark matter content. Likewise, measurements of the diffuse
interstellar gas found at the edge of galaxies indicate not only dark matter distributions that extend beyond the visible limit of the galaxies, but also that the galaxies are virialized up to ten times their visible radii. This has the effect of pushing up the dark matter as a fraction of the total amount of gravitating matter from 50% measured by Rubin to the now accepted value of nearly 95%.
There are places where dark matter seems to be a small component or totally absent.
Globular clusters show no evidence that they contain dark matter, though their orbital interactions with galaxies do show evidence for galactic dark matter. For some time, measurements of the velocity profile of stars seemed to indicate concentration of dark matter in the
disk of the
Milky Way galaxy, however, now it seems that the high concentration of baryonic matter in the disk of the galaxy (especially in the interstellar medium) can account for this motion. Galaxy mass profiles are thought to look very different from the light profiles. The typical model for dark matter galaxies is a smooth, spherical distribution in virialized halos. Such would have to be the case to avoid small-scale (stellar) dynamical effects. Recent research reported in January 2006 from the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst would explain the previously mysterious warp in the disk of the Milky Way by the interaction of the
Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds and the predicted 20 fold increase in mass of the Milky Way taking into account dark matter.
In 2005, astronomers from
Cardiff University claimed to discover a
galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter, 50 million light years away in the
Virgo Cluster, which was named
VIRGOHI21.
[10] Unusually, VIRGOHI21 does not appear to contain any visible stars: it was seen with radio frequency observations of hydrogen. Based on rotation profiles, the scientists estimate that this object contains approximately 1000 times more dark matter than hydrogen and has a total mass of about 1/10th that of the
Milky Way Galaxy we live in. For comparison, the Milky Way is believed to have roughly 10 times as much dark matter as ordinary matter. Models of the
Big Bang and
structure formation have suggested that such dark galaxies should be very common in the universe, but none had previously been detected. If the existence of this dark galaxy is confirmed, it provides strong evidence for the theory of galaxy formation and poses problems for alternative explanations of dark matter.
Recently too there is evidence that there are 10 to 100 times fewer small galaxies than permitted by what the dark matter theory of galaxy formation predicts. There are also a small number of galaxies, like
NGC 3379 whose measured orbital velocity of its gas clouds, show that it contains almost no dark matter at all.
[11]
Galaxy clusters and gravitational lensing
thumb in
Abell 1689 indicates the presence of dark matter - Enlarge the image to see the lensing arcs. Credits:
NASA/
ESA
Dark matter affects
galaxy clusters as well.
X-ray measurements of hot
intracluster gas correspond closely to Zwicky's observations of mass-to-light ratios for large clusters of nearly 10 to 1. Many of the experiments of the
Chandra X-ray Observatory use this technique to independently determine the mass of clusters.
The galaxy cluster
Abell 2029 is composed of thousands of galaxies enveloped in a cloud of hot gas, and an amount of dark matter equivalent to more than 10
14 Suns. At the center of this cluster is an enormous, elliptically shaped galaxy that is thought to have been formed from the mergers of many smaller galaxies.
[12] The measured orbital velocities of galaxies within galactic clusters have been found to be consistent with dark matter observations.
Another important tool for future dark matter observations is
gravitational lensing. Lensing relies on the effects of
general relativity to predict masses without relying on dynamics, and so is a completely independent means of measuring the dark matter. Strong lensing, the observed distortion of background galaxies into arcs when the light passes through a gravitational lens, has been observed around a few distant clusters including
Abell 1689 (pictured right). By measuring the distortion geometry, the mass of the cluster causing the phenomena can be obtained. In the dozens of cases where this has been done, the mass-to-light ratios obtained correspond to the dynamical dark matter measurements of clusters.
A technique has been developed over the last 10 years called
weak gravitational lensing, which looks at minute distortions of galaxies observed in vast
galaxy surveys due to foreground objects through statistical analyses. By examining the apparent shear deformation of the adjacent background galaxies, astrophysicists can characterize the mean distribution of dark matter by statistical means and have found mass-to-light ratios that correspond to dark matter densities predicted by other large-scale structure measurements.
[13] The correspondence of the two gravitational lens techniques to other dark matter measurements has convinced almost all astrophysicists that dark matter actually exists as a major component of the universe's composition.
The most direct observational evidence to date for dark matter is in a system known as the
Bullet Cluster. In most regions of the universe, dark matter and visible material are found together,
[14] as expected because of their mutual gravitational attraction. In the Bullet Cluster, a collision between two
galaxy clusters appears to have caused a separation of dark matter and baryonic matter.
X-ray observations show that much of the baryonic matter (in the form of 10
7–10
8 Kelvin gas, or
plasma) in the system is concentrated in the center of the system.
Electromagnetic interactions between passing gas particles caused them to slow down and settle near the point of impact. However, weak gravitational lensing observations of the same system show that much of the mass resides outside of the central region of baryonic gas. Because dark matter does not interact by electromagnetic forces, it would not have been slowed in the same way as the X-ray visible gas, so the dark matter components of the two clusters passed through each other without slowing down substantially. This accounts for the separation. Unlike the galactic rotation curves, this evidence for dark matter is independent of the details of
Newtonian gravity, so it is held as direct evidence of the existence of dark matter.
[15] [16] [17]
Structure formation
Dark matter is crucial to the
Big Bang model of cosmology as a component which corresponds directly to measurements of the
parameters associated with
Friedmann cosmology solutions to
general relativity. In particular, measurements of the
cosmic microwave background anisotropies correspond to a cosmology where much of the matter interacts with
photons more weakly than the known
forces that couple light interactions to baryonic matter. Likewise, a significant amount of non-
baryonic, cold matter is necessary to explain the
large-scale structure of the universe.
Observations suggest that
structure formation in the universe proceeds hierarchically, with the smallest structures collapsing first and followed by galaxies and then clusters of galaxies. As the structures collapse in the evolving universe, they begin to "light up" as the baryonic matter heats up through gravitational contraction and the object approaches
hydrostatic pressure balance. Ordinary
baryonic matter had too high a temperature, and too much pressure left over from the Big Bang to collapse and form smaller structures, such as stars, via the
Jeans instability. Dark matter acts as a compactor of structure. This model not only corresponds with statistical surveying of the visible structure in the universe but also corresponds precisely to the dark matter predictions of the cosmic microwave background.
This
bottom up
model of structure formation requires something like cold dark matter to succeed. Large computer simulations of billions of dark matter particles have been used to confirm that the cold dark matter model of structure formation is consistent with the structures observed in the universe through galaxy surveys, such as the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey and
2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, as well as observations of the
Lyman-alpha forest. These studies have been crucial in constructing the
Lambda-CDM model which measures the cosmological parameters, including the fraction of the universe made up of baryons and dark matter.
Composition
Although dark matter was inferred by
gravitational lensing in August 2006,
many aspects of dark matter remain speculative. The
DAMA/NaI experiment and its successor
DAMA/LIBRA have claimed to directly detect dark matter passing through the Earth, though most scientists remain skeptical since negative results of other experiments are (almost) incompatible with the DAMA results if dark matter consists of
neutralinos.
Data from a number of lines of evidence, including
galaxy rotation curves, gravitational lensing, structure formation, and the fraction of baryons in clusters and the cluster abundance combined with independent evidence for the baryon density, indicate that 85-90% of the mass in the universe does not interact with the
electromagnetic force. This "nonbaryonic dark matter" is evident through its gravitational effect. Historically, three categories of nonbaryonic dark matter have been postulated
[18]:
- Hot dark matter – nonbaryonic particles that move ultrarelativistically [19]
- Warm dark matter – nonbaryonic particles that move relativistically
- Cold dark matter – nonbaryonic particles that move non-relativistically [20]
Davis
et al.
wrote in 1985:
Candidate particles can be grouped into three categories on the basis of their effect on the fluctuation spectrum (Bond et al.
1983). If the dark matter is composed of abundant light particles which remain relativistic until shortly before recombination, then it may be termed "hot". The best candidate for hot dark matter is a neutrino ... A second possibility is for the dark matter particles to interact more weakly than neutrinos, to be less abundant, and to have a mass of order 1eV. Such particles are termed "warm dark matter", because they have lower thermal velocities than massive neutrinos ... there are at present few candidate particles which fit this description. Gravitinos and photinos have been suggested (Pagels and Primack 1982; Bond, Szalay and Turner 1982) ... Any particles which became nonrelativistic very early, and so were able to diffuse a negligible distance, are termed "cold" dark matter (CDM). There are many candidates for CDM including supersymmetric particles [21]
Hot dark matter
consists of particles that travel with
relativistic velocities. One kind of hot dark matter is known, the
neutrino. Neutrinos have a very small mass, do not interact via either the
electromagnetic or the
strong nuclear force and are therefore very difficult to detect. This is what makes them appealing as dark matter. However, bounds on neutrinos indicate that ordinary neutrinos make only a small contribution to the density of dark matter.
Hot dark matter cannot explain how individual galaxies formed from the Big Bang. The
microwave background radiation as measured by the
COBE and
WMAP satellites, while incredibly smooth, indicates that matter has clumped on very small scales. Fast moving particles, however, cannot clump together on such small scales and, in fact, suppress the clumping of other matter. Hot dark matter, while it certainly exists in our universe in the form of neutrinos, is therefore only part of the story.
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The Concordance Model requires that, to explain structure in the universe, it is necessary to invoke cold (non-relativistic) dark matter. Large masses, like galaxy-sized black holes can be ruled out on the basis of
gravitational lensing data. However, tiny black holes are a possibility.
[22] Other possibilities involving normal
baryonic matter include
brown dwarfs or perhaps small, dense chunks of heavy elements; such objects are known as
massive compact halo objects, or "MACHOs". However, studies of
big bang nucleosynthesis have convinced most scientists that
baryonic matter such as MACHOs cannot be more than a small fraction of the total dark matter.
At present, the most common view is that dark matter is primarily non-
baryonic, made of one or more elementary particles other than the usual
electrons,
protons,
neutrons, and known
neutrinos. The most commonly proposed particles are
axions,
sterile neutrinos, and
WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, including
neutralinos). None of these are part of the
standard model of
particle physics, but they can arise in extensions to the standard model. Many
supersymmetric models naturally give rise to stable dark matter candidates in the form of the
Lightest Supersymmetric Particle (LSP). Heavy, sterile neutrinos exist in extensions to the standard model that explain the small
neutrino mass through the
seesaw mechanism.
Detection
If the dark matter within our galaxy is made up of
WIMPs, then a large number must pass through the Earth each second. There are many experiments currently running, or planned, aiming to test this hypothesis by searching for WIMPs. Although WIMPs are a more popular dark matter candidate
, there are also experiments searching for other particle candidates such as
axions.
These experiments can be divided into two classes: direct detection experiments, which search for the scattering of dark matter particles off atomic nuclei within a detector; and indirect detection, which look for the products of WIMP annihilations.
[23]
An alternative approach to the detection of WIMPs in nature is to produce them in the laboratory. Experiments with the
Large Hadron Collider may be able to detect WIMPs. Because a WIMP has negligible interactions with matter, it can be detected as missing energy and momentum. It is also possible that dark matter consists of very heavy
hidden sector particles which only interact with ordinary matter via gravity. These experiments could show that WIMPs can be created, but it would still require a direct detection experiment to show that they exist in sufficient numbers in the galaxy, to account for dark matter.
[24]
Direct detection experiments
Direction detection experiments operate in deep underground laboratories to reduce the background from cosmic rays. These include: the
Soudan mine; the
SNOLAB underground laboratory at
Sudbury, Ontario (Canada); the
Gran Sasso National Laboratory (Italy); the
Boulby Underground Laboratory (UK); and the
Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, South Dakota.
The majority of present experiments use one of two detector technologies: cryogenic detectors, operating at temperatures below 100mK, detect the heat produced when a particle hits an atom in a
crystal absorber such as
germanium.
Noble liquid detectors detect the flash of
scintillation light produced by a particle collision in liquid
xenon or
argon. Cryogenic detector experiments include: the
Cryogenic Dark Matter Search,
CRESST,
EDELWEISS, and
EURECA. Noble liquid experiments include ZEPLIN,
XENON,
ArDM and
LUX. Both of these detectors are capable of distinguishing background particles which scatter off electrons, from dark matter particles which scatter off nuclei.
The
DAMA/NaI,
DAMA/LIBRA experiments have detected an annual modulation in the event rate, which they claim is due to dark matter particles. (As the Earth orbits the Sun, the velocity of the detector relative to the dark matter halo will vary by a small amount depending on the time of year). This claim is so far unconfirmed and difficult to reconcile with the negative results of other experiments assuming that the WIMP scenario is correct.
[25]
Other direct dark matter experiments include
DRIFT,
PICASSO, and the
DMTPC.
Indirect detection experiments
Indirect detection experiments search for the products of WIMP annihilation. If WIMPs are
majorana particles (the particle and antiparticle are the same) then two WIMPs colliding would
annihilate to produce
gamma rays, and particle-antiparticle pairs. This could produce a significant number of gamma rays,
antiprotons or
positrons in the galactic halo. The detection of such a signal is not conclusive evidence for dark matter, as the backgrounds from other sources are not fully understood.
The
EGRET gamma ray telescope observed an excess of gamma rays, but concluded that this was most likely a systematic effect.
[26] The
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched June 11, 2008, is searching for gamma rays events from dark matter annihilation.
[27]
The
PAMELA payload (launched 2006) has detected an excess of positrons, which could be produced by dark matter annihilation, but may also come from pulsars. No excess of anti-protons has been observed.
[28]
WIMPs passing through the
Sun or
Earth are likely to scatter off atoms and lose energy. This way a large population of WIMPs may accumulate at the centre of these bodies, increasing the chance that two will collide and annihilate. This could produce an distinctive signal in the form of high energy
neutrinos originating from the centre of the Sun or Earth. It is generally considered that the detection of such a signal would be the strongest indirect proof of WIMP dark matter.
High energy neutrino telescopes such as
AMANDA,
IceCube and
ANTARES are searching for this.
Alternative explanations
Dark matter and dark energy represent the most popular theory among physicists and cosmologists to explain the various anomalies that
Zwicky and subsequent researchers have observed. However, direct observational evidence of dark matter has remained elusive. A minority of scientists have suggested that the existence of a vast amount of undetected matter is less likely than the possibility that current theories of
gravitation are simply incomplete (much like the now discredited theory of
ether, once thought to be the medium through which light travels, was overturned in the early 20
th century). Some alternative theories to dark matter and dark energy have been proposed.
Modifications of gravity
A proposed alternative to physical dark matter particles has been to suppose that the observed inconsistencies are due to an incomplete understanding of
gravitation. To explain the observations, the gravitational force has to become stronger than the Newtonian approximation at great distances or in weak fields. One of the proposed models is
Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), which adjusts
Newton's laws at small acceleration. However, constructing a
relativistic MOND theory has been troublesome, and it is not clear how the theory can be reconciled with
gravitational lensing measurements of the deflection of light around galaxies. The leading relativistic MOND theory, proposed by
Jacob Bekenstein in 2004 is called
TeVeS for Tensor-Vector-Scalar and solves many of the problems of earlier attempts. However, a study in August 2006 reported an observation of a pair of colliding galaxy clusters whose behavior, it was claimed, was not compatible with any current modified gravity theories.
[29]
In 2007,
John W. Moffatt proposed a theory of modified gravity (MOG) based on the
Nonsymmetric Gravitational Theory (NGT) that claims to account for the behavior of colliding galaxies.
[30]
Quantum mechanical explanations
In another class of theories one attempts to reconcile
gravitation with
quantum mechanics and obtains corrections to the conventional gravitational interaction. In
scalar-tensor theories,
scalar fields like the
Higgs field couple to the
curvature given through the
Riemann tensor or its traces. In many such theories, the scalar field equals the
inflaton field, which is needed to explain the
inflation of the universe after the
Big Bang, as the dominating factor of the
quintessence or
Dark Energy. Using an approach based on the
exact renormalization group, M. Reuter and H. Weyer have shown
[31] that Newton's constant and the
cosmological constant can be scalar functions on spacetime if one associates renormalization scales to the points of spacetime. Some
M-Theory cosmologists also propose that multi-dimensional forces from outside the visible universe have gravitational effects on the visible universe meaning that dark matter is not necessary for a unified theory of cosmology.
Or just neutrinos?
In 2009
Theo M. Nieuwenhuizen analyzed the lensing data of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, assuming that its dark matter is described by an isothermal profile of quantum particles. Bosons do not fit the data. Fermions should have mass of a few eV, quite light, so it would explain why the many dark matter searches have failed. This approach allows to explain the temperature, the radial profile and the reionization of the cluster gas.
The best case is provided by neutrinos of about 1.5 eV. Active (lefthanded) ones alone account for some 9.5% dark matter, so sterile (righthanded) ones with similar mass are needed to achieve about 19%. This would lead back to the hot dark matter scenario, which requires a new explanation of structure formation.
[32]
Popular culture
Mentions of dark matter occur in some video games and other works of fiction. In such cases, it is usually attributed extraordinary physical or magical properties. Such descriptions are often inconsistent with the properties of dark matter proposed in physics and cosmology.
See also
- Lambda-CDM model
- WIMPs
- MACHOs
- Scalar field dark matter
- SIMP
- Galaxy formation and evolution
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- Light Dark Matter
- Self-interacting dark matter
- Mirror matter
- Dark matter halo
- Galaxy rotation curve
- Conformal gravity
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- Modified Newtonian dynamics
- Robust Associations of Massive Baryonic Objects (RAMBOs)
- Dark Energy
- Dark flow
- Daemons
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References
- Mark J Hadley(2007)"Classical Dark Matter"
- Some Theories Win, Some Lose
- The Search for Dark Matter
- Death of Stellar Baryonic Dark Matter Candidates
- Death of Stellar Baryonic Dark Matter
- Fornasa, Mattia and Bertone, Gianfranco (2008), Black Holes as Dark Matter Annihilation Boosters, ''International Journal of Modern Physics D'', '''17''', 1125-1157.
- Bertone, Gianfranco, Hooper, Dan and Silk, Joseph (2005), Particle dark matter: evidence, candidates and constraints, ''Physics Reports'', '''405''', 279-390.
- Die Rotverschiebung von extragalaktischen Nebeln
- In Search of Dark Matter
- Astronomers claim first 'dark galaxy' find
- New Scientist (2008), "Cosmic Enlightenment" (March 8, 2008) No.2646) p.29
- Abell 2029: Hot News for Cold Dark Matter
- Weak gravitational lensing by large-scale structure
- Dark matter maps reveal cosmic scaffolding
- A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter
- Dark Matter Observed
- NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter
- The Big Bang
- Formation of Subgalactic Objects within Two-Component Dark Matter
- Fine-scale anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in a universe dominated by cold dark matter
- The evolution of large-scale structure in a universe dominated by cold dark matter
- Dark Matter may be Black Hole Pinpoints
- Dark matter dynamics and indirect detection
- Dark Matter and LHC: What is the Connection?
- R. Bernabei et al., ''First results from DAMA/LIBRA and the combined results with DAMA/NaI
'', Eur. Phys. J. C '''56''':333-355 (2008), articlepreprint
- The likely cause of the EGRET GeV anomaly and its implications
- The large area telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
- An anomalous positron abundance in cosmic rays with energies 1.5–100 GeV
- NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter
- The Bullet Cluster 1E0657-558 evidence shows modified gravity in the absence of dark matter
- Running Newton Constant, Improved Gravitational Actions, and Galaxy Rotation Curves
- Do non-relativistic neutrinos constitute the dark matter?