2 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the IAU Symposium 244 "Dark Galaxies and Lost Baryons", Cardiff 25-29 June 2007, eds. J.I. Davies & M.J. Disney
The Local Supercluster is an ideal laboratory to study distribution of luminous and dark matter in the nearby Universe. The 1100 small groups have been selected using algorithm based on assumption that a total energy of physical pair of galaxies must be negative. The properties of the groups have been considered.
We present a high resolution dark matter reconstruction of the z=0.165 Abell 901/902 supercluster from a weak lensing analysis of the HST STAGES survey. We detect the four main structures of the supercluster at high significance, resolving substructure within and between the clusters. We find that the distribution of dark matter is well traced by the cluster galaxies, with the brightest cluster galaxies marking out the strongest peaks in the dark matter distribution. We also find a significant extension of the dark matter distribution of Abell 901a in the direction of an infalling X-ray group …
The observed apparent acceleration of the universe is usually attributed to negative pressure from a mysterious dark energy. This acceleration causes the gravitational potential to decay, heating or cooling photons travelling through crests or troughs of large-scale matter density fluctuations. This phenomenon, the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect, has been detected, albeit at low significance, by cross-correlating various galaxy surveys with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Recently, the best evidence has come from the statistical combination of results from multiple correl…
We identify high density regions of supercluster size in high resolution N-body simulations of a representative volume of three Cold Dark Matter Universes. By assuming that (1) the density and peculiar velocities of baryons trace those of the dark matter, and (2) the temperature of plasma is proportional to the velocity dispersion of the dark matter particles in regions where the crossing times is smaller than the supercluster free-fall time, we investigate how thermal motions of electrons in the intra-cluster medium and peculiar velocity of clusters can affect the secondary anisotropies in th…
We present a weak shear analysis of the Abell 901/902 supercluster, composed of three rich clusters at z=0.16. Using a deep R-band image from the 0.5 x 0.5 degree MPG/ESO Wide Field Imager together with supplementary B-band observations, we build up a comprehensive picture of the light and mass distributions in this region. We find that, on average, the light from the early-type galaxies traces the dark matter fairly well, although one cluster is a notable exception to this rule. The clusters themselves exhibit a range of mass-to-light (M/L) ratios, X-ray properties, and galaxy populations. We…
Configuration properties of observed galaxy triplets are studied with the use of the method of configuration parameters and Agekian-Anosova configuration diagram. Statistically significant excess of the hierarchical configurations for the galaxy triplets of the Local Supercluster (LS) is established. The samples of the Interacting, Northern and Southern galaxy triplets do not demonstrate the same excess. Our results testify that the model of the dark matter concentrated in the halo of individual galaxies is convenient for dynamically young systems to which the most of LS triplets belong, where…
Rich clusters of galaxies are the most massive virialized systems known. Even though they contain only a small fraction of all galaxies, rich clusters provide a powerful tool for the study of galaxy formation, dark matter, large-scale structure, and cosmology. Superclusters, the largest known systems of galaxies, extend to (approx) 100h^{-1} Mpc in size and highlight the large-scale structure of the universe. This large-scale structure reflects initial conditions in the early universe and places strong contraints on models of galaxy formation and on cosmology. Some of the questions that can be…
We report the {\em first} systematic study of the supercluster-void network in the $Λ$CDM concordance cosmology treating voids and superclusters on an equal footing. We study the dark matter density field in real space smoothed with the $L_s = 5$ \hm1 Mpc Gaussian window. Superclusters and voids are defined as individual members of over-dense and under-dense excursion sets respectively. We determine the morphological properties of the cosmic web at a large number of dark matter density levels by computing Minkowski functionals for every supercluster and void. At the adopted smoothing scale ind…
Using a new compilation of available data on galaxy clusters and superclusters we present evidence for a quasiregular three-dimensional network of rich superclusters and voids, with the regions of high density separated by about 120 Mpc. We calculate the power spectrum for clusters of galaxies; it has a peak on the wavelength equal to the step of the network; the excess in the amplitude of the spectrum over that of the cold dark matter model is by a factor of 1.4. The probability that the spectrum can be formed within the framework of the standard cosmogony is very small. If the cluster distri…
We investigate the dynamical state of superclusters in Lambda cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological models, where the density parameter $Ω_0=0.2-0.4$ and $σ_8$ (the rms fluctuation on the $8h^{-1}$Mpc scale) is $0.7-0.9$. To study the nonlinear regime, we use N-body simulations. We define superclusters as maxima of the density field smoothed on the scale $R=10h^{-1}$Mpc. Smaller superclusters defined by the density field smoothed on the scale $R=5h^{-1}$Mpc are also investigated. We find the relations between the radially averaged peculiar velocity and the density contrast in the supercluster…
We present a 3-dimensional lensing analysis of the z=0.16 supercluster A901/2, resulting in a 3-D map of the dark matter distribution within a 3 X 10^{5} [Mpc]^3 volume from the COMBO-17 survey. We perform a chi^2-fit of isothermal spheres to the tangential shear pattern around each cluster as a function of redshift to estimate the 3-D positions and masses of the main clusters in the supercluster from lensing alone. We then present the first 3-D map of the dark matter gravitational potential field, Phi, using the Kaiser-Squires (1993) and Taylor (2001) inversion methods. These maps clearly sho…
(abridged) We present the results of a redshift survey of intercluster galaxies in the central region of the Shapley Concentration supercluster, aimed at determining the distribution of galaxies in between obvious overdensities. Our sample is formed by 442 new redshifts, mainly in the b_J magnitude range 17-18.8. Adding the data from our redshift surveys on the A3558 and A3528 complexes, which are close to the geometrical centre of this supercluster, we obtain a total sample of ~2000 radial velocities. Using the 1440 galaxies of our total sample in the magnitude range 17 - 18.8, we reconstruct…
We find clusters and superclusters of galaxies using the Data Release 1 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Density fields with smoothing lengthst of 10 and 0.8 Mpc/h are calculated. We found that galaxies and clusters in a high-density environment have luminosities that are five to ten times higher than in a low-density environment. Numerical simulations show that in underdense regions most particles form a rarefied population of pregalactic matter whereas in overdense regions most particles form a clustered population in rich clusters. Simulations show also that very massive superclusters are g…
The Jeans criterion for the minimum self-gravitational condensation scale is extended to include the possibility of condensation on non-acoustic density nuclei at Schwarz scales, where structure formation begins in the plasma epoch at proto-supercluster masses about 10,000 years after the Big Bang, decreasing to galaxy masses at 300,000 years. Then the plasma universe became relatively inviscid gas and condensed to 10^23-26 kg "primordial fog particle" (PFP) masses. Baryonic dark matter by this theory should be mostly non-aggregated PFPs that persist in galactic halos. Schild (1996) suggests f…
Matter in the universe has become ``dark'' or ``missing'' through misconceptions about the fluid mechanics of gravitational structure formation. Gravitational condensation occurs on non-acoustic density nuclei at the largest Schwarz length scale L_{ST}, L_{SV}, L_{SM}, L_{SD} permitted by turbulence, viscous, or magnetic forces, or by the fluid diffusivity. Non-baryonic fluids have diffusivities larger (by factors of trillions or more) than baryonic (ordinary) fluids, and cannot condense to nucleate baryonic galaxy formation as is usually assumed. Baryonic fluids begin to condense in the plasm…
We have extended the discussion of Paper II (Ekholm et al. 1999) to cover also the backside of the Local Supercluster (LSC) by using 96 galaxies within Theta<30 deg from the adopted centre of LSC and with distance moduli from the direct B-band Tully-Fisher relation. In order to minimize the influence of the Malmquist bias we required log V_max>2.1 and sigma_{B_T}<0.2 mag. We found out that if R_Virgo<20 Mpc this sample fails to follow the expected dynamical pattern from the Tolman-Bondi (TB) model. When we compared our results with the Virgo core galaxies given by Federspiel et al. (1998) we w…
Recently, it was suggested that large concentrations or groups of quasars may trace sites of enhanced matter density at medium and high redshifts analogous to how galaxy clusters trace them in nearby space. We have checked existing quasar data for the presence of such groups. Large Quasar Groups (LQGs) were identified using a well-known cluster analysis technique. Our final list consists of 12 groups, including one reported previously. Most of the quasars in these groups come from deep homogeneous surveys. We have found that: (i) the probability that the detected groups are random is rather sm…
The distribution of superclusters in the Local Supercluster neighbourhood presents such a remarkable periodicity that some kind of network must fit the observed large scale structure. A three dimension chessboard has been suggested$^{1}$. The existence of this network is really a challenge for currently-suggested theoretical models. For instance, CDM models of the formation of the large scale structure predict a random distribution of superclusters$^{2}$. If the filaments of matter that are now observed building up the network are fossil relics of over-dense regions of magnetic field energy be…
We assess the extent to which the PSCz survey encapsulates the complete or major share of matter inhomogeneities responsible for the external tidal forces affecting the peculiar velocity flow within the Local Supercluster [LS]. We investigate this issue on the basis of mock galaxy catalogs drawn from two large Nbody simulations of cosmic structure formation in two different cosmological scenarios. From these a variety of datasets is selected imitating the observational conditions of either the volume-limited LS mimicking NBG catalog or the deeper magnitude-limited PSCz catalog. The mildly nonl…
Dark energy is inferred from a Hubble expansion which is slower at epochs which are earlier than ours. But evidence reviewed here shows $H_0$ for nearby galaxies is actually less than currently adopted and would instead require {\it deceleration} to reach the current value. Distances of Cepheid variables in galaxies in the Local Supercluster have been measured by the Hubble Space Telescope and it is argued here that they require a low value of $H_0$ along with redshifts which are at least partly intrinsic. The intrinsic component is hypothesized to be a result of the particle masses increasing…
While much of the focus of observational cosmology is on the high redshift universe it is important not to neglect the very local universe as a source of cosmological information. The inner profiles and number counts of low mass halos have provided the biggest stumbling blocks so far for LCDM. These small structures can only be seen nearby where the component of a galaxy's redshift which is due to motions under gravity can be comparable to (or even larger than) its cosmological redshift. We report on a new sample of Tully-Fisher distances (the SFI++) which is being used in combination with pub…
We study the geometry and topology of the large-scale structure traced by galaxy clusters in numerical simulations of a box of side 320 $h^{-1}$ Mpc, and compare them with available data on real clusters. The simulations we use are generated by the Zel'dovich approximation, using the same methods as we have used in the first three papers in this series. We consider the following models to see if there are measurable differences in the topology and geometry of the superclustering they produce: (i) the standard CDM model (SCDM); (ii) a CDM model with $Ω_0=0.2$ (OCDM); (iii) a CDM model with a `t…
We provide a new tool to interpret the large scale structure of the Universe. As suggested in Paper II, energy density filaments could have been produced by subjacent magnetic flux tubes when the Universe was dominated by radiation. In more recent time epochs, small scale filaments have evolved in a complicated way, but large scale filaments have probably survived and should be identified with present observed matter filaments of clusters. A primordial magnetic field lattice made up of magnetic flux tubes would then have originated a matter lattice made up of cluster filaments. Taking into acc…
Using high S/N STIS echelle spectra (FWHM=7 km/s) of 3C 273, we constrain the metallicities of two Lya clouds in the vicinity of the Virgo cluster. We detect C II, Si II, and Si III absorption lines in the Lya absorber at z = 0.00530. Previous observations with FUSE have revealed Ly beta - Ly theta lines at this redshift, thereby accurately constraining N(H I). We model the ionization of the gas and derive [C/H] = -1.2^{+0.3}_{-0.2}, [Si/C] = 0.2+/-0.1, and log n_{H} = -2.8+/-0.3. The model implies a small absorber thickness, ~70 pc, and thermal pressure p/k ~ 40 cm^{-3} K. It is most likely t…
To study the local Hubble flow, we have run constrained dark matter (DM) simulations of the Local Group (LG) in the concordance LCDM and OCDM cosmologies, with identical cosmological parameters apart from the Lambda term. The simulations were performed within a computational box of 64 h^{-1}Mpc centred on the LG. The initial conditions were constrained by the observed peculiar velocities of galaxies and positions of X-ray nearby clusters of galaxies. The simulations faithfully reproduce the nearby large scale structure, and in particular the Local Supercluster and the Virgo cluster. LG-like ob…
The KLUN (Kinematics of the Local UNiverse) sample of 6600 spiral galaxies is used in studying dark matter in different scales: Type dependence of the zero-point of Tully-Fisher relation indicates M/L \approx 9 -- 16 in galactic scale. Preliminary results from a study of selection effect influencing double galaxies give a larger value M/L \approx 30 -- 50. Study of the Perseus-Pisces supercluster, using Malmquist bias corrected TF distances and Tolman-Bondi solutions indicates M/L \approx 200 -- 600 for the large clusters. Application of developed version of Sandage-Tammann-Hardy test of the l…
We investigate the large-scale distribution of galaxy clusters taken from several X-ray catalogs. Different statistics of clustering like the conditional correlation function (CCF) and the minimal spanning tree (MST) as well as void statistics were used. Clusters show two distinct regimes of clustering: 1) on scales of superclusters (~40/h Mpc) the CCF is represented by a power law; 2) on larger scales a gradual transition to homogeneity (~100/h Mpc) is observed. We also present the correlation analysis of the galaxy distribution taken from DR6 SDSS main galaxy database. In case of galaxies th…
Dark matter appears in two forms as a consequence of the fluid mechanics of self-gravitational condensation. Condensation occurs primarily on non-acoustic nuclei rather than on the acoustic nuclei of the Jeans (1902) criterion, leading to a very different scenario for structure formation. Viscous forces at 10^12 s (30,000 y) after the big bang permit decelerations of 10^47 kg protosupercluster plasma masses, and 10^42 kg protogalaxy masses at 10^13 s (300,000 y). Then gas formed, and all the baryonic universe became a "primordial fog" of 10^23 kg particles at the viscous Schwarz scale: 100% da…
How much dark matter is there in the universe and where is it located? These are two of the most fundamental questions in cosmology. We use in this paper optical and x-ray mass determinations of galaxies, groups, and clusters of galaxies to suggest that most of the dark matter may reside in very large halos around galaxies, typically extending to ~200 kpc for bright galaxies. We show that the mass-to-light ratio of galaxy systems does not increase significantly with linear scale beyond the very large halos suggested for individual galaxies. Rather, the total mass of large scale systems such as…
The first structures were proto-voids formed in the primordial plasma. Viscous and weak turbulence forces balanced gravitational forces when the scale of causal connection at time 30,000 years matched the viscous and turbulent Schwarz scales of hydro-gravitational theory (Gibson 1996). The photon viscosity allows only weak turbulence from the Reynolds number Re = 200, with fragmentation to give proto-supercluster voids, buoyancy forces, fossil vorticity turbulence, and strong sonic damping. The expanding, cooling, plasma continued fragmentation to proto-galaxy-mass with the density and rate-of…
Hubble Space telescope (HST) images of merging galaxy system VV29 reveal the 0.3 Mpc baryonic-dark-matter (BDM) halo composed of primordial protoglobularstarcluster (PGC) clumps of planets. Star-cluster-wakes trace the merger by formation of stars from the planets. Aligned young globular star clusters (YGCs), star-wakes and dust-trails show the frictional, spiral passage of galaxy fragments VV29cdef in a long tail-like galaxy (VV29b) as the fragments merge on the accretion disk plane of the central spiral galaxy VV29a. The observations confirm the hydro-gravitational-dynamics (HGD) prediction …
Observations are compared to conflicting predictions about self-gravitational structure formation by the hydro-gravitational theory (HGT) of Gibson 1996-2003 versus cold-dark-matter hierarchical-clustering-cosmology (CDMHCC) and the Jeans 1902 criterion. According to HGT, gravitational structures form immediately after mass-energy equality by plasma fragmentation at 30,000 years when viscous and weak turbulence forces first balance gravitational forces within the horizon L_H = ct < L_J = c/[3ρG]^1/2, contrary to the Jeans 1902 criterion. Buoyancy forces fossilize the 10^-12 s^-1 rate-of-strain…
Cold dark matter hierarchical clustering (CDMHC) cosmology based on the Jeans 1902 criterion for gravitational instability gives predictions about the early universe contrary to fluid mechanics and observations. Jeans neglected viscosity, diffusivity, and turbulence: factors that determine gravitational structure formation and contradict small structures (CDM halos) forming from non-baryonic dark matter particle candidates. From hydro-gravitational-dynamics (HGD) cosmology, viscous-gravitational fragmentation produced supercluster (10^46 kg), cluster, and galaxy-mass (10^42 kg) clouds in the p…
Jeans's (1902 & 1929) linear gravitational instability criterion gives truly spectacular errors in its predictions of cosmological structure formation according to Gibson's (1996) new nonlinear theory. Scales are determined by viscous or turbulent forces, or by diffusivity, at Schwarz length scales L_SV, L_ST, or L_SD, respectively, whichever is larger. By these new criteria, void formation begins in the plasma epoch soon after matter dominates energy, at L approx L_SV = (gamma nu / rho G)^1/2 scales corresponding to protosuperclusters, decreasing to protogalaxies at the plasma-gas transition,…
Theory and observations reveal fatal flaws in the standard LambdaCDM model. The cold dark matter hierarchical clustering paradigm predicts a gradual bottom-up growth of gravitational structures assuming linear, collisionless, ideal flows and unrealistic CDM condensations and mergers. Collisional fluid mechanics with viscosity, turbulence, and diffusion predicts a turbulent big bang and top-down viscous-gravitational fragmentation from supercluster to galaxy scales in the plasma epoch, as observed from 0.3 Gpc void sizes, 1.5 Gpc spins and Kolmogorov-fingerprint-turbulence-signatures in the CMB…
The Friedman equation is solved for a universe contains hotdark matter and cold dark matter. In this scenario, hot-dark matter drives an accelerating universe no cold dark matter.
We analyse intermediate-resolution VLT FLAMES/Giraffe spectra of six ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies in the Fornax cluster. We obtained velocity dispersions and stellar population properties by full spectral fitting against PEGASE.HR models. Objects span a large range of metallicities (-0.95 to -0.23 dex), 4 of them are older than 8 Gyr. Comparison of the stellar and dynamical masses suggests that UCDs have little dark matter at best. For one object, UCD3, the Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) results in the stellar mass significantly exceeding the dynamical one, whereas for the Kroupa I…
Self-gravitational structure formation theory for astrophysics and cosmology is revised using nonlinear fluid mechanics. Gibson's 1996-2000 theory balances fluid mechanical forces with gravitational forces and density diffusion with gravitational diffusion at critical viscous, turbulent, magnetic, and diffusion length scales termed Schwarz scales. Instability occurs for scales larger than the largest Schwarz scale rather than only for scales larger than the acoustic scale introduced by Jeans 1902. From the new theory, the inner-halo-dark-matter of galaxies consists of dark proto-globular-star-…
Observations in the optical, in X-rays, and gravitational lensing of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure are beginning to provide clues to the dark matter problem. I review the impact of these observations on some of the main questions relating to dark matter: How much dark matter is there? Where is it located? What is the nature of the dark matter? and what is the amount of baryonic dark matter.
It is now, generally, believed that the presence of some form of dark matter is essential to explain the flat rotation curves of galaxies, and anomalous large velocities of galaxies in the clusters and superclusters. This dark matter turns out to be too elusive and, so far, there is no direct evidence for such matter although there is a large variety of candidates proposed by theoretical models. One would expect that the existence of vast amount of dark matter would lead to the formation of some dark galaxies or clusters which could be seen by gravitational lensing events.This could serve as a…
Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is an empirically motivated modification of Newtonian gravity or inertia suggested by Milgrom as an alternative to cosmic dark matter. The basic idea is that at accelerations below a0 ~ 10^{-8} cm/s^2 ~ cH0/6 the effective gravitational attraction approaches sqrt{gN*a0} where gN is the usual Newtonian acceleration. This simple algorithm yields flat rotation curves for spiral galaxies and a mass-rotation velocity relation of the form M ~ V^4 that forms the basis for the observed luminosity-rotation velocity relation-- the Tully-Fisher law. We review the phenom…
The self consistency between the impressive DAMA annual modulation signal and the differential energy spectrum is an important test for dark matter candidates.Mirror matter-type dark matter passes this test while other dark matter candidates, including standard (spin-independent) WIMPs and mini-electric charged particle dark matter, do not do so well.We argue that the unique properties of mirror matter-type dark matter seem to be just those required to fully explain the data, suggesting that the dark matter problem has finally been solved.
Dark energy/matter unification is first demonstrated within the framework of a simplified model. Geodetic evolution of a cosmological constant dominated bubble Universe, free of genuine matter, is translated into a specific FRW cosmology whose effectively induced dark component highly resembles the cold dark matter ansatz. The realistic extension constitutes a dark soliton which bridges past (radiation and/or matter dominated) and future (cosmological constant dominated) Einstein regimes; its experimental signature is a moderate redshift dependent cold dark matter deficiency function.
There are six main things which any non-baryonic dark matter theory should endeavour to explain: (1) The basic dark matter particle properties [mass, stability, darkness]; (2) The similarity in cosmic abundance between ordinary and non-baryonic dark matter, $Ω_B \sim Ω_{dark}$; (3) Large scale structure formation; (4) Microlensing (MACHO) events; (5) Asymptotically flat rotation curves in spiral galaxies; (6) The impressive DAMA/NaI annual modulation signal. Only mirror matter-type dark matter is capable of explaining all six of these desirable features. The purpose of this article is to provi…
Mirror matter-type dark matter is one dark matter candidate which is particularly well motivated from high energy physics. The theoretical motivation and experimental evidence are pedagogically reviewed, with emphasis on the implications of recent orthopositronium experiments, the DAMA/NaI dark matter search, anomalous meteorite events etc.
We show that if the neutralino in the minimal supersymmetric standard model is the dark matter in our galaxy, there cannot be a dark matter cusp extending to the galactic center. Conversely, if a dark matter cusp extends to the galactic center, the neutralino cannot be the dark matter in our galaxy. We obtain these results considering the synchrotron emission from neutralino annihilations around the black hole at the galactic center.
Two mechanisms by which the Quintessence scalar could enhance the relic abundance of dark matter particles are discussed. This effect can have an impact on supersymmetric candidates for dark matter.
The cosmological dust has begun to settle. A likely picture is a universe comprised (predominantly) of three components: ordinary baryons ($Ω_B \approx 0.05$), non-baryonic dark matter ($Ω_{Dark} \approx 0.22$) and dark energy ($Ω_Λ \approx 0.7$). We suggest that the observed similarity of the abundances of ordinary baryons and non-baryonic dark matter ($Ω_{B}/Ω_{Dark} \approx 0.20$) hints at an underlying similarity between the fundamental properties of ordinary and dark matter particles. This is necessarily the case if dark matter is identified with mirror matter. We examine a specific mirro…
We explore some of the consequences of Dark Matter-photon interactions on structure formation, focusing on the evolution of cosmological perturbations and performing both an analytical and a numerical study. We compute the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and matter power spectrum in this class of models. We find, as the main result, that when Dark Matter and photons are coupled, Dark Matter perturbations can experience a new damping regime in addition to the usual collisional Silk damping effect. Such Dark Matter particles (having quite large photon interactions) behave like Cold Dark…
I review prospects for detecting dark matter in space-based experiments, with an emphasis on recent developments. I propose the ``Martha Stewart criterion'' for identifying dark matter candidates that are particularly worth investigation and focus on three that satisfy it: neutralino dark matter, Kaluza-Klein dark matter, and superWIMP gravitino dark matter.
It is a puzzle why the densities of dark matter and dark energy are nearly equal today when they scale so differently during the expansion of the universe. This conundrum may be solved if there is a coupling between the two dark sectors. In this paper we assume that dark matter is made of cold relics with masses depending exponentially on the scalar field associated to dark energy. Since the dynamics of the system is dominated by an attractor solution, the dark matter particle mass is forced to change with time as to ensure that the ratio between the energy densities of dark matter and dark en…