Dark Matter: Large versus Small Scale Structures

Dear Colleagues,

The standard cold dark matter cosmology (the LCDM model) is successful overall but leaves open a number of questions that may lead to significant or even revolutionary changes. On large scales, galaxy surveys, gravitational lensing measurements, and N-body simulations show that the dark matter forms a cosmic web structure with self-similar features: the web filaments and walls are arranged in a hierarchy that extends from galactic-cluster sizes to puzzling sizes of more than 100 Mpc. On small scales, the structure of dark-matter halos seen in cold dark matter N-body simulations is in conflict with observations, as manifested by the core-cusp and dwarf-galaxy problems.

Some open questions are: What are the largest structures in the universe? Do galaxies and dark matter form the same large scale structures? Are these structures self-similar? In this regard, let us recall Peebles' anomaly: “scale-dependent biasing seems an awkward way to account for the powerlaw forms of the low order galaxy position correlation functions.” What new do the recent improvements on the calculation of higher-order correlations tell us? Can the soluble adhesion model allow the analytical calculation of correlations? In what range of scales the cosmic web predicted by this model is valid? On small scales, are the halos seen in N-body simulations real or are they rather numerical artifacts?

This Special Issue of Galaxies is addressed to answering these questions without much departure from the cold dark matter model, that is to say, limiting the introduction of new ad hoc ingredients, such as warm or self-interacting dark matter, gravity modifications, etc. Contributions to specific questions are welcome as well as wide scope papers, including topical reviews.

Prof. José Gaite
Prof. Antonaldo Diaferio
Guest Editor

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References:

1. Peebles, P.J.E. Nonlinear Cosmological Tests. Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice, 2006. http://www.oca.eu/etc7/ncp06/peebles.html
2. Weinberg, D.H. et al. Cold dark matter: controversies on small scales. arXiv:1306.0913.
3. Gaite, J. Halo Models of Large Scale Structure and Reliability of Cosmological N-Body Simulations. Galaxies 2013, 1, 31–43.