Month: September 2022

STRUCTURE SUPPRESSION. “Self-interacting DM (SIDM) is DM particles which scatter elastically with each other; couplings with other particles in the early universe can suppress the power spectrum (and hence structure formation) on small scales.“ (DM = dark matter). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

LAG. “DM self-interactions transfer momentum between the cluster halos, so they lag behind the collisionless galaxies, leading to an offset between the DM and galaxies. Merging clusters also lead to constraints from the cluster surviving the merger.” (DM = dark matter). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

DARK MATTER CANDIDATES. “While the majority of DM candidates are new fundamental particles, DM doesn’t have to be a particle. Non-particles candidates, such as Primordial Black Holes (PBHs), can also be constrained by various astrophysical and cosmological processes.” (DM = dark matter). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

“FAR OUT in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.” (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe). https://lnkd.in/ei-_8xs6 View in LinkedIn

Halrlequin stink bug in her full glory basing in the sun. View in LinkedIn

COSMIC FOSSILS. “PBHs are black holes, with masses M > 10(15) g, that form in the early Universe from large over-densities.” (PBH = Primordial Black Holes). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. “The ΛCDM cosmological model, in which the Universe is flat with 25% of the energy density being in the form of cold, non-baryonic, dark matter is a good fit to a wide range of observations (nucleosynthesis, CMB, large scale structure, type 1a supernovae). However we don’t (yet...) know what dark matter (or dark energy) is.” (ΛCDM = A-Cold-Dark-Matter standard model of cosmology; CMB = cosmic microwave background). https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

WAITING FOR GODOT. “To detect dark matter we need to know how it’s distributed, in particular in the Milky Way galaxy, and there has been significant recent (and ongoing) progress in this field from both observations and simulations.” https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

PEERING INTO THE HEAVENS. “We can also probe the nature of dark matter (i.e. deviations from ‘vanilla’ cold dark matter which just interacts gravitationally) using astronomical and cosmological observations.” https://lnkd.in/e6ifiQMn View in LinkedIn

RADICAL BIOLOGY. “Morowitz’s book “Energy Flow in Biology” laid out his pioneering thesis that “the energy that flows through a system acts to organize that system.” The Wikipedia entry for “Life” quotes Morowitz’s assertion that “life is a property of an ecological system rather than a single organism or species.” (A remarkable man). https://lnkd.in/efGrNub9 View in LinkedIn