dark matter
Dark matter is a kind of matter hypothesized in astronomy and cosmology to account for gravitational effects that appear to be the result of invisible mass. Dark matter cannot be seen directly with telescopes; evidently it neither emits nor absorbs light or otherelectromagnetic radiation at any significant level. It is otherwise hypothesized to simply be matter that is not reactant to light.[1]Instead, the existence and properties of dark matter are inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, radiation, and the large-scale structure of the universe. According to the Planck mission team, and based on the standard model of cosmology, the total mass–energy of the known universe contains 4.9% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter and 68.3% dark energy.[2][3] Thus, dark matter is estimated to constitute 84.5% of the total matter in the universe, while dark energy plus dark matter constitute 95.1% of the total content of the universe.[4][5]
Astrophysicists hypothesized dark matter because of discrepancies between the mass of large astronomical objects determined from their gravitational effects and the mass calculated from the "luminous matter" they contain: stars, gas, and dust. Although based upon flawed or inadequate evidence, dark matter was postulated by Jan Oort in 1932 to account for the orbital velocities of stars in the Milky Way and by Fritz Zwicky in 1933 to account for evidence of "missing mass" in the orbital velocities of galaxies in clusters. Adequate evidence from galaxy rotation curves was discovered by Horace W. Babcock in 1939, but was not attributed to dark matter. The first to postulate dark matter based upon robust evidence was Vera Rubin in the 1960s–1970s, using galaxy rotation curves.[6][7] Subsequently, many other observations have indicated the presence of dark matter in the universe, includinggravitational lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters such as the Bullet Cluster, the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and more recently the pattern of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. According to consensus among cosmologists, dark matter is composed primarily of a not yet characterized type of subatomic particle.[8][9] The search for this particle, by a variety of means, is one of the major efforts in particle physics today.[10]
Although the existence of dark matter is generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community, some alternative theories of gravity have been proposed, such as MOND and TeVeS, which try to account for the anomalous observations without requiring additional matter.
Dark matter's existence is inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter and gravitational lensing of background radiation, and was originally hypothesized to account for discrepancies between calculations of the mass of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and the entire universe made through dynamical and general relativistic means, and calculations based on the mass of the visible "luminous" matter these objects contain: stars and the gas and dust of the interstellar and intergalactic medium.[1]
The most widely accepted explanation for these phenomena is that dark matter exists and that it is most probably[8] composed ofweakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that interact only through gravity and the weak force. Alternative explanations have been proposed, and there is not yet sufficient experimental evidence to determine whether any of them are correct. Many experiments to detect proposed dark matter particles through non-gravitational means are under way.[10]
One other theory suggests the existence of a “Hidden Valley”, a parallel world made of dark matter having very little in common with matter we know,[11] and that could only interact with our visible universe through gravity.[12] [13]
According to observations of structures larger than star systems, as well as Big Bang cosmology interpreted under the Friedmann equations and the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric, dark matter accounts for 26.8% of the mass-energy content of the observable universe. In comparison, ordinary (baryonic) matter accounts for only 4.9% of the mass-energy content of the observable universe, with the remainder being attributable to dark energy.[3] From these figures, matter accounts for 31.7% of the mass-energy content of the universe, and 84.5% of the matter is dark matter.[4]
Dark matter plays a central role in state-of-the-art modeling of cosmic structure formation and Galaxy formation and evolution and has measurable effects on the anisotropiesobserved in 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.[14]
Important as dark matter is thought to be in the cosmos, 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 theoretical approaches have been developed which broadly fall into the categories of modified gravitational laws and quantum gravitational laws.[15]
Baryonic and nonbaryonic dark matter[edit]
There are three separate lines of evidence that the majority of dark matter is not made of baryons (ordinary matter includingprotons and neutrons):
- The theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis, which very accurately predicts the observed abundance of the chemical elements,[16] predicts that baryonic matter accounts for around 4–5 percent of the critical density of the Universe. In contrast, evidence from large-scale structure and other observations indicates that the total matter density is about 30% of the critical density.
- Large astronomical searches for gravitational microlensing, including the MACHO, EROS and OGLE projects, have shown that only a small fraction of the dark matter in the Milky Way can be hiding in dark compact objects; the excluded range covers objects above half the Earth's mass up to 30 solar masses, excluding nearly all the plausible candidates.
- Detailed analysis of the small irregularities (anisotropies) in the cosmic microwave background observed by WMAP andPlanck shows that around five-sixths of the total matter is in a form which does not interact significantly with ordinary matter or photons.
A small proportion of dark matter may be baryonic dark matter: astronomical bodies, such as massive compact halo objects, that are composed of ordinary matter but which emit little or no electromagnetic radiation. Study of nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang produces an upper bound on the amount of baryonic matter in the universe,[17] which indicates that the vast majority of dark matter in the universe cannot be baryons, and thus does not form atoms. It also cannot interact with ordinary matter via electromagnetic forces; in particular, dark matter particles do not carry any electric charge.
Candidates for nonbaryonic dark matter are hypothetical particles such as axions, or supersymmetric particles; neutrinos can only form a small fraction of the dark matter, due to limits from large-scale structure and high-redshift galaxies. Unlike baryonic dark matter, nonbaryonic dark matter does not contribute to the formation of the elements in the early universe ("Big Bang nucleosynthesis")[8] 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, possibly resulting in observable by-products such as gamma rays and neutrinos ("indirect detection").[18]
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 cold dark matter (CDM), warm dark matter (WDM), and hot dark matter (HDM); 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 weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). Hot dark matter may include (massive) neutrinos, but observations imply that only a small fraction of dark matter can be hot. Cold dark matter leads to a "bottom-up" formation of structure in the universe while hot dark matter would result in a "top-down" formation scenario; since the late 1990s, the latter has been ruled out by observations of high-redshift galaxies such as the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field.[10]
Observational evidence[edit]
The first person to interpret evidence and infer the presence of dark matter was Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, a pioneer in radio astronomy, in 1932.[20] Oort was studying stellar motions in the local galactic neighbourhood and found that the mass in the galactic plane must be more than the material that could be seen, but this measurement was later determined to be essentially erroneous.[21] In 1933, the Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky, who studied clusters of galaxies while working at theCalifornia Institute of Technology, made a similar inference.[22][23] Zwicky 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. Zwicky's estimates are off by more than an order of magnitude. Had he erred in the opposite direction by as much, he would have had to try explain the opposite – why there was too much visible matter relative to the gravitational observations – and his observations would have indicated dark energy rather than dark matter.[24]
Much of the evidence for dark matter comes from the study of the motions of galaxies.[25] 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. Observationally, 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, show the well known phenomenology that 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, since large collections of matter (dark or otherwise) will gravitationally deflect light. 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. In July 2012, lensing observations were used to identify a "filament" of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies, as cosmological simulations have predicted.[26]
Galaxy rotation curves[edit]
The first robust indications that the mass to light ratio was anything other than unity came from measurements of galaxy rotation curves. In 1939, Horace W. Babcock reported in his PhD thesis measurements of the rotation curve for the Andromeda nebula which suggested that the mass-to-luminosity ratio increases radially.[27] He, however, attributed it to either absorption of light within the galaxy or modified dynamics in the outer portions of the spiral and not to any form of missing matter.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Vera Rubin at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washingtonwas the first to both make robust measurements indicating the existence of dark matter and attribute them to dark matter. Rubin worked with 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.[7] Together with fellow staff-member Kent Ford, Rubin announced at a 1975 meeting of the American Astronomical Society the discovery that most stars in spiral galaxies orbit at roughly the same speed, which implied that the mass densities of the galaxies were uniform well beyond the regions containing most of the stars (the galactic bulge), a result independently found in 1978.[28] An influential paper presented Rubin's results in 1980.[29] Rubin's observations and calculations showed that most galaxies must contain about six times as much “dark” mass as can be accounted for by the visible stars. Eventually other astronomers began to corroborate her work and it soon became well-established that most galaxies were dominated by "dark matter":
- Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies.[30] LSBs are probably everywhere dark matter-dominated, with the observed stellar populations making only a small contribution to rotation curves. Such a property is extremely important because it allows one to avoid the difficulties associated with the deprojection and disentanglement of the dark and visible contributions to the rotation curves.[10]
- Spiral Galaxies.[31] Rotation curves of both low and high surface luminosity galaxies appear to suggest a universal rotation curve, which can be expressed as the sum of an exponential thin stellar disk, and a spherical dark matter halo with a flat core of radius r0 and density ρ0 = 4.5 × 10−2(r0/kpc)−2/3 M☉pc−3.
- Elliptical galaxies. Some elliptical galaxies show evidence for dark matter via strong gravitational lensing,[32] X-ray evidence reveals the presence of extended atmospheres of hot gas that fill the dark haloes of isolated ellipticals and whose hydrostatic support provides evidence for dark matter. Other ellipticals have low velocities in their outskirts (tracked for example by planetary nebulae) and were interpreted as not having dark matter haloes.[10] However, simulations of disk-galaxy mergers indicate that stars were torn by tidal forces from their original galaxies during the first close passage and put on outgoing trajectories, explaining the low velocities even with a DM halo.[33] More research is needed to clarify this situation.
Simulated dark matter haloes have significantly steeper density profiles (having central cusps) than are inferred from observations, which is a problem for cosmological models with dark matter at the smallest scale of galaxies as of 2008.[10] This may only be a problem of resolution: star-forming regions which might alter the dark matter distribution via outflows of gas have been too small to resolve and model simultaneously with larger dark matter clumps. A recent simulation[34] of a dwarf galaxy resolving these star-forming regions reported that strong outflows from supernovae remove low-angular-momentum gas, which inhibits the formation of a galactic bulge and decreases the dark matter density to less than half of what it would have been in the central kiloparsec. These simulation predictions—bulgeless and with shallow central dark matter profiles—correspond closely to observations of actual dwarf galaxies. There are no such discrepancies at the larger scales of clusters of galaxies and above, or in the outer regions of haloes of galaxies.
Exceptions to this general picture of dark matter haloes for galaxies appear to be galaxies with mass-to-light ratios close to that of stars.[citation needed] Subsequent to this, numerous observations have been made that do indicate the presence of dark matter in various parts of the cosmos, such as observations of the cosmic microwave background, of supernovas used as distance measures, of gravitational lensing at various scales, and many types of sky survey. Starting with Rubin's findings for spiral galaxies, the robust observational evidence for dark matter has been collecting over the decades to the point that by the 1980s most astrophysicists accepted its existence.[35] 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[edit]
In astronomy, the velocity dispersion σ, is the range of velocities about the mean velocity for a group of objects, such as a cluster of stars about a galaxy.
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.[36]While sometimes appearing with lower mass-to-light ratios, measurements of ellipticals still indicate a relatively high dark matter content. Likewise, measurements of the diffuseinterstellar 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(i.e. gravitationally bound with velocities corresponding to predicted orbital velocities of general relativity) up to ten times their visible radii.[citation needed] 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 little evidence that they contain dark matter,[37] though their orbital interactions with galaxies do show evidence for galactic dark matter.[citation needed] For some time, measurements of the velocity profile of stars seemed to indicate concentration of dark matter in the disk of the Milky Way. It now appears, however, 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.[38]
In 2005, astronomers from Cardiff University claimed to have discovered a galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter, 50 million light years away in the Virgo Cluster, which was named VIRGOHI21.[39] 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 1/10 that of the Milky Way. For comparison, the Milky Way is estimated 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[citation needed], 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.
There are some galaxies whose velocity profile indicates an absence of dark matter, such as NGC 3379.[40]
Galaxy clusters and gravitational lensing[edit]
Galaxy clusters are especially important for dark matter studies since their masses can be estimated in three independent ways:
- From the scatter in radial velocities of the galaxies within them (as in Zwicky's early observations, but with accurate measurements and much larger samples).
- From X-rays emitted by very hot gas within the clusters. The temperature and density of the gas can be estimated from the energy and flux of the X-rays, hence the gas pressure; assuming pressure and gravity balance, this enables the mass profile of the cluster to be derived. Many of the experiments of the Chandra X-ray Observatory use this technique to independently determine the mass of clusters. These observations generally indicate a ratio of baryonic to total mass approximately 12–15 percent, in reasonable agreement with the Planck spacecraft cosmic average of 15.5–16 percent.[41]
- From their gravitational lensing effects on background objects, usually more distant galaxies. This is observed as "strong lensing" (multiple images) near the cluster core, and weak lensing (shape distortions) in the outer parts. Several large Hubble projects have used this method to measure cluster masses.
Generally these three methods are in reasonable agreement, that clusters contain much more matter than the visible galaxies and gas.
A gravitational lens is formed when the light from a more distant source (such as a quasar) is "bent" around a massive object (such as acluster of galaxies) between the source object and the observer. The process is known as gravitational lensing.
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 1014 M☉. 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.[42] 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).[43] 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.[44]
Weak gravitational lensing 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.[45] 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,[46] 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 107–108 Kelvin[47] 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 claimed to be direct evidence of the existence of dark matter.[47] Another galaxy cluster, known as the Train Wreck Cluster/Abell 520, appears to have an unusually massive and dark core containing few of the cluster's galaxies, which presents problems for standard dark matter models.[48]
This may be explained by the dark core actually being a long, low-density dark matter filament (containing few galaxies) along the line of sight, projected onto the cluster core.[49]
The observed behavior of dark matter in clusters constrains whether and how much dark matter scatters off other dark matter particles, quantified as its self-interaction cross section. More simply, the question is whether the dark matter has pressure, and thus can be described as a perfect fluid.[50] The distribution of mass (and thus dark matter) in galaxy clusters has been used to argue both for[51] and against[52] the existence of significant self-interaction in dark matter. Specifically, the distribution of dark matter in merging clusters such as the Bullet Cluster shows that dark matter scatters off other dark matter particles only very weakly if at all.[53]
Cosmic microwave background[edit]
Angular fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum provide evidence for dark matter. Since the 1964 discovery and confirmation of the CMB radiation,[54]many measurements of the CMB have supported and constrained this theory. The NASA Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) found that the CMB spectrum is a blackbodyspectrum with a temperature of 2.726 K. In 1992, COBE detected fluctuations (anisotropies) in the CMB spectrum, at a level of about one part in 105.[55] During the following decade, CMB anisotropies were further investigated by a large number of ground-based and balloon experiments. The primary goal of these experiments was to measure the angular scale of the first acoustic peak of the power spectrum of the anisotropies, for which COBE did not have sufficient resolution. In 2000–2001, several experiments, most notably BOOMERanG[56] found the Universe to be almost spatially flat by measuring the typical angular size (the size on the sky) of the anisotropies. During the 1990s, the first peak was measured with increasing sensitivity and by 2000 the BOOMERanG experiment reported that the highest power fluctuations occur at scales of approximately one degree. These measurements were able to rule out cosmic strings as the leading theory of cosmic structure formation, and suggested cosmic inflation was the right theory.
A number of ground-based interferometers provided measurements of the fluctuations with higher accuracy over the next three years, including the Very Small Array, the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI) and the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI). DASI made the first detection of the polarization of the CMB,[57][58] and the CBI provided the first E-mode polarization spectrum with compelling evidence that it is out of phase with the T-mode spectrum.[59] COBE's successor, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP) has provided the most detailed measurements of (large-scale) anisotropies in the CMB as of 2009 with ESA's Planck spacecraft returning more detailed results in 2012-2014.[60] WMAP's measurements played the key role in establishing the current Standard Model of Cosmology, namely the Lambda-CDM model, a flat universe dominated by dark energy, supplemented by dark matter and atoms with density fluctuations seeded by a Gaussian, adiabatic, nearly scale invariant process. The basic properties of this universe are determined by five numbers: the density of matter, the density of atoms, the age of the universe (or equivalently, the Hubble constant today), the amplitude of the initial fluctuations, and their scale dependence.
A successful Big Bang cosmology theory must fit with all available astronomical observations, including the CMB. In cosmology, the CMB is explained as relic radiation from shortly after the big bang. The anisotropies in the CMB are explained as acoustic oscillations in the photon-baryon plasma (prior to the emission of the CMB after the photons decouple from the baryons at 379,000 years after the Big Bang) whose restoring force is gravity.[61] Ordinary (baryonic) matter interacts strongly with radiation whereas, by definition, dark matter does not. Both affect the oscillations by their gravity, so the two forms of matter will have different effects. The typical angular scales of the oscillations in the CMB, measured as the power spectrum of the CMB anisotropies, thus reveal the different effects of baryonic matter and dark matter. The CMB power spectrum shows a large first peak and smaller successive peaks, with three peaks resolved as of 2009.[60] The first peak tells mostly about the density of baryonic matter and the third peak mostly about the density of dark matter, measuring the density of matter and the density of atoms in the universe.
Sky surveys and baryon acoustic oscillations[edit]
The acoustic oscillations in the early universe (see the previous section) leave their imprint in the visible matter by Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) clustering, in a way that can be measured with sky surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.[62] These measurements are consistent with those of the CMB derived from the WMAP spacecraft and further constrain the Lambda CDM model and dark matter. Note that the CMB data and the BAO data measure the acoustic oscillations at very different distance scales.[61]
Type Ia supernovae distance measurements[edit]
Type Ia supernovae can be used as "standard candles" to measure extragalactic distances, and extensive data sets of these supernovae can be used to constrain cosmological models.[63] They constrain the dark energy density ΩΛ = ~0.713 for a flat, Lambda CDM Universe and the parameter w for a quintessence model. Once again, the values obtained are roughly consistent with those derived from the WMAP observations and further constrain the Lambda CDM model and (indirectly) dark matter.[61]
Lyman-alpha forest[edit]
In astronomical spectroscopy, the Lyman-alpha forest is the sum of absorption lines arising from the Lyman-alpha transition of the neutral hydrogen in the spectra of distantgalaxies and quasars. Observations of the Lyman-alpha forest can also be used to constrain cosmological models.[64] These constraints are again in agreement with those obtained from WMAP data.
Structure formation[edit]
Dark matter is crucial to the Big Bang model of cosmology as a component which corresponds directly to measurements of theparameters 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 forcesthat couple light interactions to baryonic matter. Likewise, a significant amount of non-baryonic, cold matter is necessary to explain thelarge-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[66] 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.
There are, however, several points of tension between observation and simulations of structure formation driven by dark matter. 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.[67][68] This is known as the dwarf galaxy problem. In addition, the simulations predict dark matter distributions with a very dense cusp near the centers of galaxies, but the observed halos are smoother than predicted.
Possible 2014 indirect detection[edit]
Axions may have been detected through irregularities in X-ray emission due to interaction of the Earth's magnetic field with radiation streaming from the Sun. Studying 15 years of detection data produced by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory, a research group at Leicester University noticed a seasonal variation for which no conventional explanation could be found. One potential explanation for the variation, described as "plausible" by the senior author of the paper that reported the team's findings, was X-rays produced by interaction of Axions produced at the Sun's core with the Earth's magnetic field.[69]
