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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Dark Matter (disambiguation). Not to be confused with
Antimatter or Dark energy.

Unsolved problem in physics:

What is dark matter? How was it generated?

(more unsolved problems in physics)

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In astronomy, dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that does not

interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is
implied by gravitational effects which cannot be explained by general
relativity unless more matter is present than can be observed. Such
effects occur in the context of formation and evolution of galaxies,[1]
gravitational lensing,[2] the observable universe's current structure, mass
position in galactic collisions,[3] the motion of galaxies within galaxy
clusters, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies.
In the standard Lambda-CDM model of cosmology, the mass–energy
content of the universe is 5% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter, and
68.2% a form of energy known as dark energy.[4][5][6][7] Thus, dark matter
constitutes 85%[a] of the total mass, while dark energy and dark matter
constitute 95% of the total mass–energy content.[8][9][10][11]

Dark matter is not known to interact with ordinary baryonic matter and
radiation except through gravity, making it difficult to detect in the
laboratory. The most prevalent explanation is that dark matter is some as-
yet-undiscovered subatomic particle, such as either weakly interacting
massive particles (WIMPs) or axions.[12] The other main possibility is that
dark matter is composed of primordial black holes.[13][14][15]

Dark matter is classified as "cold", "warm", or "hot" according to velocity

(more precisely, its free streaming length). Recent models have favored a
cold dark matter scenario, in which structures emerge by the gradual
accumulation of particles.

Although the astrophysics community generally accepts the existence of

dark matter,[16] a minority of astrophysicists, intrigued by specific
observations that are not well explained by ordinary dark matter, argue
for various modifications of the standard laws of general relativity. These
include modified Newtonian dynamics, tensor–vector–scalar gravity, or
entropic gravity. So far none of the proposed modified gravity theories can
describe every piece of observational evidence at the same time,
suggesting that even if gravity has to be modified, some form of dark
matter will still be required.[17]

History

Early history

The hypothesis of dark matter has an elaborate history. [18][19] Wm.

Thomson, Lord Kelvin, discussed the potential number of stars around the
Sun in the appendices of a book based on a series of lectures given in
1884 in Baltimore.[20][18] He inferred their density using the observed
velocity dispersion of the stars near the Sun, assuming that the Sun was
20–100 million years old. He posed what would happen if there were a
thousand million stars within 1 kiloparsec of the Sun (at which distance
their parallax would be 1 milli-arcsecond). Kelvin concluded

Many of our supposed thousand million stars – perhaps a great majority of

them – may be dark bodies.[20][21]

In 1906, Poincaré[22] used the French term [matière obscure] ("dark

matter") in discussing Kelvin's work.[22][21] He found that the amount of
dark matter would need to be less than that of visible matter, incorrectly,
it turns out.[21][18]

The second to suggest the existence of dark matter using stellar velocities
was Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn in 1922.[23][24]

A publication from 1930 by Swedish astronomer Knut Lundmark points to

him being the first to realise that the universe must contain much more
mass than can be observed.[25] Dutch radio astronomy pioneer Jan Oort
also hypothesized the existence of dark matter in 1932. [24][26][27] Oort was
studying stellar motions in the galactic neighborhood and found the mass
in the galactic plane must be greater than what was observed, but this
measurement was later determined to be incorrect.[28]

In 1933, Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky studied galaxy clusters while

working at Cal Tech and made a similar inference.[29][b][30] Zwicky applied
the virial theorem to the Coma Cluster and obtained evidence of unseen
mass he called dunkle Materie ('dark matter'). Zwicky estimated its mass
based on the motions of galaxies near its edge and compared that to an
estimate based on its brightness and number of galaxies. He estimated
the cluster had about 400 times more mass than was visually observable.
The gravity effect of the visible galaxies was far too small for such fast
orbits, thus mass must be hidden from view. Based on these conclusions,
Zwicky inferred some unseen matter provided the mass and associated
gravitational attraction to hold the cluster together. [31] Zwicky's estimates
were off by more than an order of magnitude, mainly due to an obsolete
value of the Hubble constant;[32] the same calculation today shows a
smaller fraction, using greater values for luminous mass. Nonetheless,
Zwicky did correctly conclude from his calculation that most of the
gravitational matter present was dark.[21] However unlike modern theories,
Zwicky considered "dark matter" to be non-luminous ordinary matter. [18]: III.A

Further indications of mass-to-light ratio anomalies came from

measurements of galaxy rotation curves. In 1939, H.W. Babcock reported
the rotation curve for the Andromeda nebula (now called the Andromeda
Galaxy), which suggested the mass-to-luminosity ratio increases radially.
[33]
He attributed it to either light absorption within the galaxy or modified
dynamics in the outer portions of the spiral, rather than to unseen matter.
Following Babcock's 1939 report of unexpectedly rapid rotation in the
outskirts of the Andromeda Galaxy and a mass-to-light ratio of 50; in
1940, Oort discovered and wrote about the large non-visible halo of
NGC 3115.[34]

1970s
The hypothesis of dark matter largely took root in the 1970s. Several
different observations were synthesized to argue that galaxies should be
surrounded by halos of unseen matter. In two papers that appeared in
1974, this conclusion was drawn in tandem by independent groups: in
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S., by Jeremiah Ostriker, Jim Peebles, and Amos
Yahil, and in Tartu, Estonia, by Jaan Einasto, Enn Saar, and Ants Kaasik.[35]

One of the observations that served as evidence for the existence of

galactic halos of dark matter was the shape of galaxy rotation curves.
These observations were done in optical and radio astronomy. In optical
astronomy, Vera Rubin and Kent Ford worked with a new spectrograph to
measure the velocity curve of edge-on spiral galaxies with greater
accuracy.[36][37][38]

At the same time, radio astronomers were making use of new radio
telescopes to map the 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen in nearby galaxies.
The radial distribution of interstellar atomic hydrogen (HI) often extends to
much greater galactic distances than can be observed as collective
starlight, expanding the sampled distances for rotation curves – and thus
of the total mass distribution – to a new dynamical regime. Early mapping
of Andromeda with the 300 foot telescope at Green Bank[39] and the
250 foot dish at Jodrell Bank[40] already showed the HI rotation curve did
not trace the decline expected from Keplerian orbits.

As more sensitive receivers became available, Roberts & Whitehurst

(1975)[41] were able to trace the rotational velocity of Andromeda to
30 kpc, much beyond the optical measurements. Illustrating the
advantage of tracing the gas disk at large radii; that paper's Figure 16[41]
combines the optical data[38] (the cluster of points at radii of less than
15 kpc with a single point further out) with the H I data between 20 and
30 kpc, exhibiting the flatness of the outer galaxy rotation curve; the solid
curve peaking at the center is the optical surface density, while the other
curve shows the cumulative mass, still rising linearly at the outermost
measurement. In parallel, the use of interferometric arrays for
extragalactic HI spectroscopy was being developed. Rogstad & Shostak
(1972)[42] published HI rotation curves of five spirals mapped with the
Owens Valley interferometer; the rotation curves of all five were very flat,
suggesting very large values of mass-to-light ratio in the outer parts of
their extended HI disks.[42] In 1978, Albert Bosma showed further evidence
of flat rotation curves using data from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio
Telescope.[43]

By the late 1970s the existence of dark matter halos around galaxies was
widely recognized as real, and became a major unsolved problem in
astronomy.[35]
1980–1990s

A stream of observations in the 1980–1990s supported the presence of

dark matter. Persic, Salucci & Stel (1996) is notable for the investigation of
967 spirals.[44] The evidence for dark matter also included gravitational
lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters,[45](pp 14–16) the temperature
distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters, and the pattern of
anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background.

According to the current consensus among cosmologists, dark matter is

composed primarily of some type of not-yet-characterized subatomic
particle.[46][47] The search for this particle, by a variety of means, is one of
the major efforts in particle physics.[48]

Technical definition

See also: Friedmann equations

In standard cosmological calculations, "matter" means any constituent of

scale factor, i.e., ρ ∝ a−3 . This is in contrast to "radiation", which scales as

the universe whose energy density scales with the inverse cube of the

the inverse fourth power of the scale factor ρ ∝ a−4 , and a cosmological
constant, which does not change with respect to a (ρ ∝ a0).[49] The different
scaling factors for matter and radiation are a consequence of radiation
redshift. For example, after doubling the diameter of the observable
Universe via cosmic expansion, the scale, a, has doubled. The energy of
the cosmic microwave background radiation has been halved (because
the wavelength of each photon has doubled); [50] the energy of ultra-
relativistic particles, such as early-era standard-model neutrinos, is
similarly halved.[c] The cosmological constant, as an intrinsic property of
space, has a constant energy density regardless of the volume under
consideration.[49]

are not visible but still obey ρ ∝ a−3 . In practice, the term "dark matter" is
In principle, "dark matter" means all components of the universe which

often used to mean only the non-baryonic component of dark matter, i.e.,
excluding "missing baryons".[51] Context will usually indicate which
meaning is intended.

Observational evidence

Galaxy rotation curves

Main article: Galaxy rotation curve

Animation of rotating disc galaxies. Dark matter – shown in red – is more

concentrated near the center and it rotates more rapidly.
The arms of spiral galaxies rotate around their galactic center. The
luminous mass density of a spiral galaxy decreases as one goes from the
center to the outskirts. If luminous mass were all the matter, then the
galaxy can be modelled as a point mass in the centre and test masses
orbiting around it, similar to the Solar System.[d] From Kepler's Third Law, it
is expected that the rotation velocities will decrease with distance from
the center, similar to the Solar System. This is not observed. [52] Instead,
the galaxy rotation curve remains flat or even increases as distance from
the center increases.

If Kepler's laws are correct, then the obvious way to resolve this
discrepancy is to conclude the mass distribution in spiral galaxies is not
similar to that of the Solar System. In particular, there may be a lot of non-
luminous matter (dark matter) in the outskirts of the galaxy.

Velocity dispersions

Main article: Velocity dispersion

Stars in bound systems must obey the virial theorem. The theorem,
together with the measured velocity distribution, can be used to measure
the mass distribution in a bound system, such as elliptical galaxies or
globular clusters. With some exceptions, velocity dispersion estimates of
elliptical galaxies[53] do not match the predicted velocity dispersion from
the observed mass distribution, even assuming complicated distributions
of stellar orbits.[54]

As with galaxy rotation curves, the obvious way to resolve the discrepancy
is to postulate the existence of non-luminous matter.

Galaxy clusters

Galaxy clusters are particularly important for dark matter studies since
their masses can be estimated in three independent ways:

 From the scatter in radial velocities of the galaxies within clusters

 From X-rays emitted by hot gas in the clusters. From the X-ray
energy spectrum and flux, the gas temperature and density can be
estimated, hence giving the pressure; assuming pressure and
gravity balance determines the cluster's mass profile.

 Gravitational lensing (usually of more distant galaxies) can measure

cluster masses without relying on observations of dynamics (e.g.,
velocity).

Generally, these three methods are in reasonable agreement that dark

matter outweighs visible matter by approximately 5 to 1. [55]
Gravitational lensing

One of the consequences of general relativity is the gravitational lens.

Gravitational lensing occurs when massive objects between a source of
light and the observer act as a lens to bend light from this source. Lensing
does not depend on the properties of the mass; it only requires there to be
a mass. The more massive an object, the more lensing is observed. An
example is a cluster of galaxies lying between a more distant source such
as a quasar and an observer. In this case, the galaxy cluster will lens the
quasar.

Strong lensing is the observed distortion of background galaxies into arcs

when their light passes through such a gravitational lens. It has been
observed around many distant clusters including Abell 1689.[56] By
measuring the distortion geometry, the mass of the intervening cluster
can be obtained. In the weak regime, lensing does not distort background
galaxies into arcs, causing minute distortions instead. By examining the
apparent shear deformation of the adjacent background galaxies, the
mean distribution of dark matter can be characterized. The measured
mass-to-light ratios correspond to dark matter densities predicted by
other large-scale structure measurements.[57][58]

Cosmic microwave background

Main article: Cosmic microwave background

Although both dark matter and ordinary matter are matter, they do not
behave in the same way. In particular, in the early universe, ordinary
matter was ionized and interacted strongly with radiation via Thomson
scattering. Dark matter does not interact directly with radiation, but it
does affect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by its gravitational
potential (mainly on large scales) and by its effects on the density and
velocity of ordinary matter. Ordinary and dark matter perturbations,
therefore, evolve differently with time and leave different imprints on the
CMB.

The CMB is very close to a perfect blackbody but contains very small
temperature anisotropies of a few parts in 100,000. A sky map of
anisotropies can be decomposed into an angular power spectrum, which is
observed to contain a series of acoustic peaks at near-equal spacing but
different heights. The locations of these peaks depend on cosmological
parameters. Matching theory to data, therefore, constrains cosmological
parameters.[59]

The CMB anisotropy was first discovered by COBE in 1992, though this had
too coarse resolution to detect the acoustic peaks. After the discovery of
the first acoustic peak by the balloon-borne BOOMERanG experiment in
2000, the power spectrum was precisely observed by WMAP in 2003–
2012, and even more precisely by the Planck spacecraft in 2013–2015.
The results support the Lambda-CDM model.[60][61]

The observed CMB angular power spectrum provides powerful evidence in

support of dark matter, as its precise structure is well fitted by the
Lambda-CDM model,[61] but difficult to reproduce with any competing
model such as modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND).[61][62]

Structure formation

Main article: Structure formation

Dark matter map for a patch of sky based on

gravitational lensing analysis of a Kilo-Degree survey [63]

Structure formation refers to the period after the Big Bang when density
perturbations collapsed to form stars, galaxies, and clusters. Prior to
structure formation, the Friedmann solutions to general relativity describe
a homogeneous universe. Later, small anisotropies gradually grew and
condensed the homogeneous universe into stars, galaxies and larger
structures. Ordinary matter is affected by radiation, which is the dominant
element of the universe at very early times. As a result, its density
perturbations are washed out and unable to condense into structure. [64] If
there were only ordinary matter in the universe, there would not have
been enough time for density perturbations to grow into the galaxies and
clusters currently seen.

Dark matter provides a solution to this problem because it is unaffected

by radiation. Therefore, its density perturbations can grow first. The
resulting gravitational potential acts as an attractive potential well for
ordinary matter collapsing later, speeding up the structure formation
process.[64][65]

Bullet Cluster

Main article: Bullet Cluster

The Bullet Cluster is the result of a recent collision of two galaxy clusters.
It is of particular note because the location of the center of mass as
measured by gravitational lensing is different from the location of the
center of mass of visible matter. This is difficult for modified gravity
theories, which generally pr