Gravitational Mesoscopic Constraints in Cosmological Dark Matter Halos

We present an analysis of the behaviour of the ‘coarse-grained’ (‘mesoscopic’) rank partitioning of the mean energy of collections of particles composing virialized dark matter halos in a Λ-CDM cosmological simulation. We find evidence that rank preservation depends on halo mass, in the sense that more massive halos show more rank preservation than less massive ones. We find that the most massive halos obey Arnold’s theorem (on the ordering of the characteristic frequencies of the system) more frequently than less massive halos. This method may be useful to evaluate the coarse-graining level (minimum number of particles per energy cell) necessary to reasonably measure signatures of ‘mesoscopic’ rank orderings in a gravitational system.     

The Galactic Dark Matter: Predictions and Observations

After two decades of efforts to identify the enigmatic dark matter that comprises the dominant form of matter in our galaxy, the mass range for viable candidates appears to have been reduced by more than 50orders of magnitude. Positive results have thus far been confined to the range: 10-7 M⊙ to 1.0 M⊙, with apparent clustering within the ranges 10-5 M⊙ to 10-3 M⊙ and 0.08 M⊙ to 0.5 M⊙. Positive and negative results are compared with specific predictions of cosmological models. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Primordial Planets Predominantly of Dark Matter

Cosmic structure formation is thought to occur as a bottom-up scenario, i.e. the lightest objects would have formed first. It has been suggested that the earliest structures to form could have been primordial planets. Here we propose the possibility of formation of primordial planets at high redshifts composed predominantly of dark matter (DM) particles, with planetary masses ranging from Neptune mass to asteroid mass. Most of these primordial DM planets could be free floating without being attached to a host star and a substantial fraction could be present in the halo contributing to the DM. Here we suggest that the flux of DM particles could be significantly reduced as substantial number of DM particles are now trapped in such objects, perhaps accounting for the negative results seen so far in the ongoing DM detection experiments.

     

Little Black Holes: Dark Matter and Ball Lightning

Small, quiescent black holes can be considered as candidates for the missing dark matter of the universe, and as the core energy source of ball lightning. By means of gravitational tunneling, unidirectional radiation is emitted from black holes in a process much attenuated from that of Hawking radiation, P, which has proven elusive to detect. Gravitational tunneling emission is similar to electric field emission of electrons from a metal in that a second body is involved which lowers the barrier and gives the barrier a finite rather than infinite width. Hawking deals with a single isolated black hole. The radiated power here is P ∝ e^-2Δγ P, where e^-2Δγ is the transmission probability. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

暗晕次结构的演化

在主流的冷暗物质(cold dark matter,CDM)模型中,暗物质由于引力不稳定性塌缩成位力化的结构,形成所谓的暗物质晕(dark matter halo),然后重子气体由于辐射消耗能量而落入这些暗晕的中心,最终形成星系.暗晕一般是通过等级成团的方式形成,即小质量暗晕先塌缩形成,进而通过并合形成更大尺度的暗晕.并合后的小质量暗晕不会立即消失,而形成暗晕(主暗晕,host halo)的次结构(dark matter halo substructure或subhalo).在次结构中形成的星系是在主暗晕中形成的中心星系的伴星系(satellite galaxy,亦称卫星星系).伴星系因为质量小、光度低而成为观测中的矮星系.     

引力波理论和实验的新进展

引力波的存在是爱因斯坦在广义相对论理论中提出的一个重要预言．由于目前技术水平的限制,无法在实验室产生足以被探测到的引力波,因此宇宙中大量的大质量剧烈活动的天体成为科学家研究引力波的首选,从而诞生了引力波天文学．引力波探测将开启研究宇宙的新窗口,是继电磁辐射、宇宙线和中微子探测后探索宇宙奥秘的又一重要手段,对天文学研究有着极为重要的意义.新一代应用了高灵敏度的迈克耳逊干涉仪装置的长基线引力波探测仪正在建造中．该综述从引力波理论出发,阐述了目前研究较多的可探测引力波源,给出了目前观测上的最新进展,并展望了今后的发展前景．     

Dark Matter and Chemical Evolution of dSph Galaxies

We calculate chemical evolution models for 4 dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way (Carina, Ursa Minor, Leo I and Leo II) for which reliable non-parametric star formation histories have been derived. We find that galaxies showing one single burst of star formation (Ursa Minor and Leo II) require a dark halo slightly larger that the current estimates for their tidal radii for the gas heated by supernovae to be retained until the observed stellar population has formed. Systems showing extended star formation histories however (Carina and Leo I), are consistent with the idea that their tidally limited dark haloes provide the necessary gravitational potential wells to retain their gas. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter in quintessence

We investigate the relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter particles in quintessence model with a kination phase. The analytic calculation of the asymmetric Dark Matter in the standard cosmological scenario is extended to the nonstandard cosmological scenario where we specifically discuss the quintessence model with a kination phase. We found that the enhancement of Hubble rate changes the relic density of particles and anti-particles. We use the present day Dark Matter abundance to constrain the Hubble rate in quintessence model with a kination phase for asymmetric Dark Matter.     

Dark Matter in Wide Triple Systems of Galaxies

Numerical models for wide triplets of galaxies are developed, and a statistical estimate of the dark matter content in these systems is derived. In a typical system, the mass of dark matter proves to be (1.5 - 3) × 1012h-1 M.     

Supernovae as a Powerful Source of Gravitational Radiation

We consider gravitational radiation in the nonspherical symmetrical evolution of supernovae. Unlike the gravitational radiation analysis of Imshennik & Popov performed using the formalism of Peters & Mathews, our analysis uses the (PN)5/2 approximation by Damour & Deruelle and Lincoln & Will. We show that the eccentricity is larger than 0.1 at the time when the Roche lobe is filled by the low-mass component, demonstrating that the conclusion of Imshennik and Popov that the final eccentricity is less than 0.1 is incorrect. If the supernova lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud (R = 50 kpc), we estimate the amplitude of gravitational waves to be h 8 × 10-20. The frequency of the emitted gravitational waves is about 1 kHz.     

New Estimates of the Merger Rate of Primordial Black Holes with Allowance for Clustering Dark Matter

Astronomy Letters - The merger rate of primordial black holes (PBHs) is numerically estimated by taking into account the gravitational interaction of PBHs with clustering cold dark matter (DM). The...     

Velocities of Magneto-Elastic and Magneto-Electron Waves in Dark Molecular Clouds

We present analytic and numerical estimates for group velocity of wave motions in two models of cold interstellar medium presumably constituting the interior of cores of magnetically supported dark molecular clouds. Namely, in the model of gas-based ferrocolloidal soft matter and in the model of noncompensated electron magnetoplasma. The predictions of these models are given in juxtaposition with data on recent Zeeman measurements of the molecular linewidths detected from dark central regions of star-forming interstellar clouds.     

The Abundance of QSOs in Various Cold Dark Matter Models

Based on the statistics of the peaks in the random Gaussian field, we put forward a method to model the evolution of quasars, which are assumed to be a phenomenon of the early stages for some massive galaxies. Our calculations show that the cold-hot mixed dark matter model with _h = 0.3 cannot match the observed quasar abundance at redshift z = 4.5, and other prevailing CDM models, such as the mixed dark matter model with _h = 0.2, the tilted CDM models with n = 0.7 or 0.8, and the flat CDM models with = 0.6 or 0.7, are compatible with the observation of the abundance of QSOs on the range of z = 2-5.     

暗物质晕次结构的演化研究进展

一般认为暗晕是通过等级成团方式形成的:小质量暗晕先形成,进而通过并合形成较大质量的暗晕。并合后的小质量暗晕形成所谓的次结构,目前关于次结构的演化过程和分布特点尚无明确结论。介绍了利用数值模拟、半解析模型和观测来研究次结构分布和演化的进展,并特别讨论了次结构的并合时标、质量函数和空间分布等特性。     

Influence of Gravitational Lensing on the Determination of the Luminosity Function of Background Objects

The distribution function of quasars with respect to apparent brightness is given, found under the assumption that quasars are, at least partially, the gravitationally enhanced images of the active nuclei of distant galaxies. A Schechter law and a two-power law for the luminosity function of the sources are used, as well as a probabilistic law of image enhancement for various models of gravitational lenses. To find the theoretical distribution function of quasars with respect to apparent brightness we use a theorem on the probability density of a product of random quantities. It is shown that the slope of this function ranges from -1 to -2 for faint quasars, like that for ordinary galaxies. In the case of bright quasars, the slope of the apparent brightness distribution function is determined mainly by the lensing effect and has a lower limit of -3. The good agreement between theory and observations suggests that statistically quasars are gravitationally enhanced images of the active nuclei of distant galaxies. If the initial assumptions are correct, then the luminosity function of galaxies and the apparent brightness function for quasars are not independent but are related by means of the differential lensing probability.     

Intrinsic neutron background of nuclear emulsions for directional Dark Matter searches

Recent developments of the nuclear emulsion technology led to the production of films with nanometric silver halide grains suitable to track low energy nuclear recoils with submicrometric length. This improvement opens the way to a directional Dark Matter detection, thus providing an innovative and complementary approach to the on-going WIMP searches. An important background source for these searches is represented by neutron-induced nuclear recoils that can mimic the WIMP signal. In this paper we provide an estimation of the contribution to this background from the intrinsic radioactive contamination of nuclear emulsions. We also report the neutron-induced background as a function of the read-out threshold, by using a GEANT4 simulation of the nuclear emulsion, showing that it amounts to about 0.06 per year per kilogram, fully compatible with the design of a 10 kg × year exposure.