Dark Matter And Cosmic Web Story (Second Edition)


Book Description

The concepts of dark matter and the cosmic web are some of the most significant developments in cosmology in the past century. They have decisively changed the classical cosmological paradigm, which was first elaborated upon during the first half of the 20th century but ran into serious problems in the second half. Today, they are integral parts of modern cosmology, which explains everything from the Big Bang to inflation to the large-scale structure of the Universe.Dark Matter and Cosmic Web Story describes the contributions that led to a paradigm shift from the Eastern point of view. It describes the problems with the classical view, the attempts to solve them, the difficulties encountered by those solutions, and the conferences where the merits of the new concepts were debated. Amidst the science, the story of scientific work in a small country occupied by the Soviet Union and the tumultuous events that led to its breakup are detailed as well.The development of cosmology has often treated as a West-East conflict between the American school led by Jim Peebles in Princeton and the Soviet team led by Yakov Zeldovich in Moscow. Actually, the development of ideas was broader, and a certain role played the Tartu team. The Tartu cosmology school was founded by Ernst Öpik and has its own traditions and attitude to science. In the new edition of the book the interplay between three cosmology schools is written in more detail. The recent development of dark matter and cosmic web studies is described, as well as the evolution of global properties of the cosmic web.This book is accompanied by a website which contains additional material: copies of the originals of some crucial papers, astronomical movies, and movies which showcase the private life of the author. In this second edition, two chapters on the statistical description of the cosmic web and its development were added, as well as chapter on the sociology of science. To keep the length of this book reasonable, a lot of reorganisation of the text has been done as well.




Dark Matter And Cosmic Web Story


Book Description

The concepts of dark matter and the cosmic web are some of the most significant developments in cosmology in the past century. They have decisively changed the classical cosmological paradigm, which was first elaborated upon during the first half of the 20th century but ran into serious problems in the second half. Today, they are integral parts of modern cosmology, which explains everything from the Big Bang to inflation to the large scale structure of the Universe.Dark Matter and Cosmic Web Story describes the contributions that led to a paradigm shift from the Eastern point of view. It describes the problems with the classical view, the attempts to solve them, the difficulties encountered by those solutions, and the conferences where the merits of the new concepts were debated. Amidst the science, the story of scientific work in a small country occupied by the Soviet Union and the tumultuous events that led to its breakup are detailed as well.This book is accompanied by a website which contains additional material: copies of the originals of some crucial papers, astronomical movies, and movies which showcase the private life of the author.




A Ray of Light in a Sea of Dark Matter


Book Description

What’s in the dark? Countless generations have gazed up at the night sky and asked this question—the same question that cosmologists ask themselves as they study the universe. The answer turns out to be surprising and rich. The space between stars is filled with an exotic substance called “dark matter” that exerts gravity but does not emit, absorb, or reflect light. The space between galaxies is rife with “dark energy” that creates a sort of cosmic antigravity causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. Together, dark matter and dark energy account for 95 percent of the content of the universe. News reporters and science journalists routinely talk about these findings using terms that they assume we have a working knowledge of, but do you really understand how astronomers arrive at their findings or what it all means? Cosmologists face a conundrum: how can we study substances we cannot see, let alone manipulate? A powerful approach is to observe objects whose motion is influenced by gravity. Einstein predicted that gravity can act like a lens to bend light. Today we see hundreds of cases of this—instances where the gravity of a distant galaxy distorts our view of a more distant object, creating multiple images or spectacular arcs on the sky. Gravitational lensing is now a key part of the international quest to understand the invisible substance that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the universe together. A Ray of Light in a Sea of Dark Matter offers readers a concise, accessible explanation of how astronomers probe dark matter. Readers quickly gain an understanding of what might be out there, how scientists arrive at their findings, and why this research is important to us. Engaging and insightful, Charles Keeton gives everyone an opportunity to be an active learner and listener in our ever-expanding universe. Watch a video with Charles Keeton: Watch video now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc3byXNS1G0).







Our Universe Via Drexler Dark Matter


Book Description

This book is different from all other modern cosmology books in several ways. It introduces a cosmologic universe, which is orderly, logical, and systematic. It teaches and explains by illustrating how a variety of cosmic mysteries have been solved. It raises the status of dark matter in the universe by illuminating its roles as the principal source of energy, the principal source of matter in the form of hydrogen and helium, and the principal source of cosmic relationships with the principal cosmic phenomena of the universe. This book simplifies the universe as Nicolaus Copernicus' book simplified the solar system in 1543. With more and more cosmic mysteries being discovered and the slow progress in solving them, cosmologists and astrophysicists must re-train themselves to understand and to utilize the postmodern unified astrophysical cosmology model and to maximize the knowledge derived from the astronomical data. These are the three principal objectives of this book.




Probing Cosmic Dark Matter and Dark Energy with Weak Gravitational Lensing Statistics


Book Description

In this book the applicability and the utility of two statistical approaches for understanding dark energy and dark matter with gravitational lensing measurement are introduced. For cosmological constraints on the nature of dark energy, morphological statistics called Minkowski functionals (MFs) to extract the non-Gaussian information of gravitational lensing are studied. Measuring lensing MFs from the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Lensing survey (CFHTLenS), the author clearly shows that MFs can be powerful statistics beyond the conventional approach with the two-point correlation function. Combined with the two-point correlation function, MFs can constrain the equation of state of dark energy with a precision level of approximately 3–4 % in upcoming surveys with sky coverage of 20,000 square degrees. On the topic of dark matter, the author studied the cross-correlation of gravitational lensing and the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Dark matter annihilation is among the potential contributors to the EGB. The cross-correlation is a powerful probe of signatures of dark matter annihilation, because both cosmic shear and gamma-ray emission originate directly from the same dark matter distribution in the universe. The first measurement of the cross-correlation using a real data set obtained from CFHTLenS and the Fermi Large Area Telescope was performed. Comparing the result with theoretical predictions, an independent constraint was placed on dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter.




Probes of Dark Matter from the Universe's Past and Present


Book Description

There are compelling evidences of gravitational effects from dark matter in cosmology and astronomy. By studying other imprints besides gravity, we might be able to infer its properties and interactions with Standard Model particles. This thesis explores how different dark matter models generate interesting observables and what can be learned by looking into various datasets. I demonstrate that novel techniques and datasets from indirect searches can be combined to set stringent constraints on the model parameters. In particular, this thesis details the calculations of constraints from two directions: on the one hand I will show how to constrain the rate of scattering, decay, and annihilation by taking advantage of cosmological observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background and the 21-cm neutral hydrogen line; on the other hand I will exploit astronomical datasets to infer properties of dark matter substructures and halo structures. The sources of the observables span a wide of range of cosmological time from cosmological recombination to the late-time universe, and they can be applied to probe complementary parameter space. With the upcoming precision measurements of astronomy, these novel ideas and calculations of indirect detections will lead insight into the nature of dark matter.







Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos


Book Description

Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.