The dark matter profile of the Milky Way: a non-parametric reconstruction

We present the results of a new, non-parametric method to reconstruct the Galactic dark matter profile directly from observations. Using the latest kinematic data to track the total gravitational potential and the observed distribution of stars and gas to set the baryonic component, we infer the dark matter contribution to the circular velocity across the Galaxy. The radial derivative of this dynamical contribution is then estimated to extract the dark matter profile. The innovative feature of our approach is that it makes no assumption on the functional form or shape of the profile, thus allowing for a clean determination with no theoretical bias. We illustrate the power of the method by constraining the spherical dark matter profile between 2.5 and 25 kpc away from the Galactic center. The results show that the proposed method, free of widely used assumptions, can already be applied to pinpoint the dark matter distribution in the Milky Way with competitive accuracy, and paves the way for future developments.

Searching for Elko dark matter spinors at the CERN LHC

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for dark matter, extra dimensions, and unparticles in monojet events in proton-proton collisions at root s=8TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Confusing the extragalactic neutrino flux limit with a neutrino propagation limit

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Some remarks on the attractor behaviour in ELKO cosmology

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A unified solution to the small scale problems of the Lambda CDM model II: introducing parent-satellite interaction

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Structure formation in the presence of dark energy perturbations

We study non-linear structure formation in the presence of dark energy. The influence of dark energy on the growth of large-scale cosmological structures is exerted both through its background effect on the expansion rate, and through its perturbations. In order to compute the rate of formation of massive objects we employ the spherical collapse formalism, which we generalize to include fluids with pressure. We show that the resulting non-linear evolution equations are identical to the ones obtained in the pseudo-Newtonian approach to cosmological perturbations, in the regime where an equation of state serves to describe both the background pressure relative to density, and the pressure perturbations relative to the density perturbations. We then consider a wide range of constant and time-dependent equations of state (including phantom models) parametrized in a standard way, and study their impact on the non-linear growth of structure. The main effect is the formation of dark energy structure associated with the dark matter halo: non-phantom equations of state induce the formation of a dark energy halo, damping the growth of structures; phantom models, on the other hand, generate dark energy voids, enhancing structure growth. Finally, we employ the Press-Schechter formalism to compute how dark energy affects the number of massive objects as a function of redshift (number counts).

Towards a Realization of the Condensed-Matter-Gravity Correspondence in String Theory via Consistent Abelian Truncation of the Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena Model

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Signatures of primordial non-Gaussianities in the matter power-spectrum and bispectrum: the time-RG approach

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Exotic dark spinor fields

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Reconstruction of interacting dark energy models from parametrizations

Models with interacting dark energy can alleviate the cosmic coincidence problem by allowing dark matter and dark energy to evolve in a similar fashion. At a fundamental level, these models are specified by choosing a functional form for the scalar potential and for the interaction term. However, in order to compare to observational data it is usually more convenient to use parametrizations of the dark energy equation of state and the evolution of the dark matter energy density. Once the relevant parameters are fitted, it is important to obtain the shape of the fundamental functions. In this paper I show how to reconstruct the scalar potential and the scalar interaction with dark matter from general parametrizations. I give a few examples and show that it is possible for the effective equation of state for the scalar field to cross the phantom barrier when interactions are allowed. I analyze the uncertainties in the reconstructed potential arising from foreseen errors in the estimation of fit parameters and point out that a Yukawa-like linear interaction results from a simple parametrization of the coupling.

DM particles: how warm they can be?

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

ELKO SPINOR FIELDS: LAGRANGIANS FOR GRAVITY DERIVED FROM SUPERGRAVITY

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The signature of dark energy perturbations in galaxy cluster surveys

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

FROM DIRAC ACTION TO ELKO ACTION

A fundamental action, representing a mass dimension-transmuting operator between Dirac and ELKO spinor fields, is performed on the Dirac Lagrangian, in order to lead it into the ELKO Lagrangian. Such a dynamical transformation can be seen as a natural extension of the Standard Model that incorporates dark matter fields. The action of the mass dimension-transmuting operator on a Dirac spinor field, that de fines and introduces such a mapping, is shown to be a composition of the Dirac operator and the nonunitary transformation that maps Dirac spinor fields into ELKO spinor fields, de fined in J. Math. Phys. 4 8, 123517 (2007). This paper gives allowance for ELKO, as a candidate to describe dark matter, to be incorporated in the Standard Model. It is intended to present for the first time, up to our knowledge, the dynamical character of a mapping between Dirac and ELKO spinor fields, transmuting the mass dimension of spin one-half fermionic fields from 3/2 to 1 and from 1 to 3/2.