We are now in the position of determining the total abundance of dark matter relative to normal, baryonic matter, in the universe with exquisite accuracy; we have a much better understanding of how dark matter is distributed in structures ranging from dwarf galaxies to clusters of galaxies, thanks to gravitational lensing observations [see 644, for a review] and theoretically from high-resolution numerical simulations made possible by modern supercomputers (such as, for example, the Millennium or Marenostrum simulations).
Originally, Zwicky thought of dark matter as most likely baryonic – missing cold gas, or low mass stars.
Rotation curve observation could be explained by dark matter in the form of MAssive Compact Halo
Objects (MACHOs, e.g., a halo of black holes or brown dwarfs). However, the MACHO and EROS
experiments have shown that dark matter cannot be in the mass range if it
comprises massive compact objects [23, 889]. Gas measurements are now extremely sensitive, ruling out
dark matter as undetected gas ([134, 238, 765]; but see [728]). And the CMB and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
require the total mass in baryons in the universe to be significantly less that the total matter density
[759, 246, 909].
This is one of the most spectacular results in cosmology obtained at the end of the 20th century: dark matter has to be non-baryonic. As a result, our expectation of the nature of dark matter shifted from an astrophysical explanation to particle physics, linking the smallest and largest scales that we can probe.
During the seventies the possibility of the neutrino to be the dark matter particle with a mass of tenth of eV was explored, but it was realized that such light particle would erase the primordial fluctuations on small scales, leading to a lack of structure formation on galactic scales and below. It was therefore postulated that the dark matter particle must be cold (low thermal energy, to allow structures on small scale to form), collisionless (or have a very low interaction cross section, because dark matter is observed to be pressureless) and stable over a long period of time: such a candidate is referred to as a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). This is the standard cold dark matter (CDM) picture [see 369, 719].
Particle physicists have proposed several possible dark matter candidates. Supersymmetry (SUSY) is an
attractive extension of the Standard Model of particle physics. The lightest SUSY particle
(the LSP) is stable, uncharged, and weakly interacting, providing a perfect WIMP candidate
known as a neutralino. Specific realizations of SUSY each provide slightly different dark matter
candidates [for a review see 482]. Another distinct dark matter candidate arising from extensions of
the Standard Model is the axion, a hypothetical pseudo-Goldstone boson whose existence was
postulated to solve the so called strong
problem in quantum chromodynamics [715
], also
arising generically in string theory [965, 871
]. They are known to be very well motivated dark
matter candidates [for a review of axions in cosmology see 826
]. Other well-known candidates
are sterile neutrinos, which interact only gravitationally with ordinary matter, apart from a
small mixing with the familiar neutrinos of the Standard Model (which should make them
ultimately unstable), and candidates arising from technicolor [see, e.g., 412]. A wide array of other
possibilities have been discussed in the literature, and they are currently being searched for with a
variety of experimental strategies [for a complete review of dark matter in particle physics see
51].
There remain some possible discrepancies in the standard cold dark matter model, such as the missing satellites problem, and the cusp-core controversy (see below for details and references) that have led some authors to question the CDM model and to propose alternative solutions. The physical mechanism by which one may reconcile the observations with the standard theory of structure formation is the suppression of the matter power spectrum at small scales. This can be achieved with dark matter particles with a strong self-scattering cross section, or with particles with a non-negligible velocity dispersion at the epoch of structure formation, also referred to as warm dark matter (WDM) particles.
Another possibility is that the extra gravitational degrees of freedom arising in modified theories of gravity play the role of dark matter. In particular this happens for the Einstein-Aether, TeVeS and bigravity models. These theories were developed following the idea that the presence of unknown dark components in the universe may be indicating us that it is not the matter component that is exotic but rather that gravity is not described by standard GR.
Finally, we note that only from astrophysical probes can any dark matter candidate found in either direct detection experiments or accelerators, such as the LHC, be confirmed. Any direct dark matter candidate discovery will give Euclid a clear goal to verify the existence of this particle on astrophysical scales. Within this context, Euclid can provide precious information on the nature of dark matter. In this part, we discuss the most relevant results that can be obtained with Euclid, and that can be summarized as follows:
Finally, Euclid will provide, through gravitational lensing measurement, a map of the dark matter distribution over the entire extragalactic sky, allowing us to study the effect of the dark matter environment on galaxy evolution and structure formation as a function of time. This map will pinpoint our place within the dark universe.
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2013-6 |
Living Rev. Relativity 16, (2013), 6
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