Dark Matter and Dark Energy: A Challenge for Modern Cosmology (Astrophysics and Space Science Library)

This book brings together reviews from leading international authorities on the developments in the study of dark matter and dark energy, as seen from both their cosmological and particle physics side. Studying the physical and astrophysical properties of the dark components of our Universe is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of unveiling their nature. The work developed from a doctoral school sponsored by the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation. The book starts with a concise introduction to the standard cosmological model, as well as with a presentation of the theory of linear perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background. It covers the particle physics and cosmological aspects of dark matter and (dynamical) dark energy, including a discussion of how modified theories of gravity could provide a possible candidate for dark energy. A detailed presentation is also given of the possible ways of testing the theory in terms of cosmic microwave background, galaxy redshift surveys and weak gravitational lensing observations. Included is a chapter reviewing extensively the direct and indirect methods of detection of the hypothetical dark matter particles. Also included is a self-contained introduction to the techniques and most important results of numerical (e.g. N-body) simulations in cosmology. ” This volume will be useful to researchers, PhD and graduate students in Astrophysics, Cosmology Physics and Mathematics, who are interested in cosmology, dark matter and dark energy. Part I Cosmology 1 Relativistic Cosmology / Norbert Straumann 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Essentials of Friedmann-Lematre models 1.3 Inflationary Scenario 1.4 Cosmological Perturbation Theory 1.5 Some Applications of Cosmological Perturbation Theory 1.6 Cosmological Perturbation Theory for Scalar Field Models 1.7 Quantization, Primordial Power Spectra 1.8 Tight Coupling Phase 1.9 General Relativistic Boltzmann Equation 2 Cosmology with Cosmic Microwave background and large-scale structure observations /Licia Verde 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Cosmic microwave background and other data sets: what have we learned about cosmology? 2.3 CMB: How is the information extracted? 2.4 The dark side of large-scale structures 2.5 Conclusions 3 Cosmology with gravitational lensing / Alan Heavens 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Basics of lensing 3.3 Dark Matter 3.4 Cosmological lensing 3.5 Lensing in 3D 3.6 Dark Gravity 3.7 The Future 3.8 Appendix: the propagation of light through a weakly-perturbed universe 4 Cosmology with numerical simulations / Lauro Moscardini and Klaus Dolag 4.1 Introduction 4.2 N-Body codes 4.3 Hydrodynamical codes Part II Dark Matter 5 Dark Matter Astrophysics / Guido D’Amico, Marc Kamionkowski and Kris Sigurdson 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Astrophysical evidence 5.3 Basic properties of dark matter 5.4 Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) 5.5 Variations and additions 5.6 Some other particle dark-matter candidates 5.7 Conclusions 6 Dark matter: the particle physics view / Antonio Masiero 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The Standard Model of Particle Physics 6.3 The Dark Matter problem: experimental evidence 6.4 Lepton number violation and neutrinos as HDM candidates 6.5 Low-energy SUSY and DM 6.6 Changing the expansion rate in the past 6.7 Implications for dark matter in the CMSSM 6.8 Acknowledgements 7 Dark Matter Direct and Indirect Detection / Andrea Giuliani 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Direct Detection of WIMPs via Scattering off Ordinary Matter 7.3 Indirect Detection via Annihilation of Dark Matter Particles 7.4 Conclusions Part III Dark Energy 8 Dark energy: investigation and modeling / Shinji Tsujikawa 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Observational constraints on dark energy 8.3 Cosmological constant 8.4 Modified matter models 8.5 Modified gravity models 8.6 Cosmic acceleration without dark energy 8.7 Conclusions Index