Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, June 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-167).

Orientador: Rogério Rosenfeld / Banca: Alberto Vasquez Saa / Banca: Bruto Max Pimentel Escobar / Resumo: Na última década várias observações indicam que o universo está expandindo aceleradamente. Essa expansão acelerada pode ser explicada em um universo composto de 70% de energia escura e 30% de matéria (25% de matéria escura e 5% de matéria bariônica). A energia escura proporciona a pressão negativa necessária para produzir a aceleração em grandes escalas. Nesse trabalho faz-se uma revisão do modelo de um campo escalar como fonte da energia escura, conhecido genericamente como modelo de quintessência. Estuda-se o modelo de quintessência acoplada à matéria escura / Abstract: In the previous decade many observations indicate that the universe is accelerating. This rapid expansion can be explained in an universe made up of 70% of dark energy and 30% of matter (25% of dark matter and 5% of baryonic matter). The dark energy provides negative pressure to produce acceleration. In this work it is studied the model of Quintessence, a model of scalar field, as source of the dark energy. It is studied the model of Coupled Quintessence with dark matter / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-27T18:26:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2015-08-28. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2018-07-27T18:30:43Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000876019.pdf: 830419 bytes, checksum: d04b4fc0f1ac3688428cce3a07901b9e (MD5) / A matéria escura é responsável por cerca de 85% de toda a matéria do universo. Sabe-se que ela possui um longo tempo de vida, que é neutra e interage com a matéria comum apenas gravitacionalmente. Muitos modelos foram aventados para descrever as possíveis partículas de matéria escura, muitos deles baseados em extensões do modelo padrão para partículas elementares. Em particular, há os modelos de partículas massivas interativas por força forte, os SIMPs, que estendem o modelo padrão com um setor escalar extra contendo todas as partículas de matéria escura, cuja estabilidade é garantida por uma simetria discreta, a qual respeitam. Essa simetria também estende as possível interações entre as partículas de matéria escura para além da usual auto-aniquilação de pares e do contexto do problema de Lee-Weinberg, descrito pelas partículas massivas interagentes por força fraca, os WIMPs. Neste trabalho postulamos a existência de um setor escalar com uma simetria discreta 'Z IND. 3'; consequente de uma quebra de simetria U(1)DM global. Esta simetria permite que processos de semi-aniquilação e aniquilação 3 SETA 2 também ocorram, além do usual processo de auto-aniquilação. Estudaremos esses três cenários, encontrando as soluções das equações de Boltzmann e comparando suas respectivas abundâncias com o resultado observacional, para podermos avaliar nosso modelo. Começaremos por revisar importantes conceitos da cosmologia padrão e por apresentar o modelo. Então revisaremos as soluções numéricas para as equações, e apresentaremos nossos próprios resultados para soluções semi-analíticas dos processos de semianiquilação e de aniquilação 3 'SETA' 2. Concluiremos por apresentar nossos próprios resultados para a solução da equação de Boltzmann para o processo 3 'SETA' 2 usando uma seção de choque que é dependente da temperatura, calculada com o pacote CalcHEP / Dark matter accounts for approximately 85% of all the matter in the universe. It is known to have a long lifetime, to be neutral and to interact with ordinary matter almost only gravitationally. There have been several models to suggest possible particles for the dark matter, many of them relying on extensions to the standard model of elementary particles. In particular, there are SIMP (strongly-interacting massive particles) models, which extend the standard model by an extra scalar sector containing the dark-matter particles, whose stability is provided by a discrete symmetry. This symmetry also extends the possible interactions between the dark-matter particles to beyond the usual pair annihilation and Lee-Weinberg scenario described by the WIMP (weakly-interacting massive particles) models. In our study, we postulate the existence of an extended dark sector with a 'Z IND. 3' discrete symmetry, which is the consequence of a global U(1)DM symmetry breaking. This symmetry allows the semi-annihilation and 3 'SETA' 2 annihilation processes to take place, besides the usual self-annihilation process. We will study each of these three scenarios, solving the respective Boltzmann equations and comparing the correspondent relic abundance to the observed one, in order to verify the liability of each of them. We will start by reviewing important aspects of standard cosmology and presenting our model. Then we will review the numerical solutions for the equations, and present our own results for semi-analytical solutions to the semi- and 3 'SETA' 2 annihilation processes. We will end by presenting our own results on solving the 3 'SETA' 2 Boltzmann equation for a temperature-dependent cross-section, calculated with the CalcHEP package

No description available.

Orientador: Rogério Rosendeld / Co-orientador: Nicolás Bernal / Banca: Ricardo D'Elia Matheus / Banca: Renata Zukanovich Funchal / Resumo: A matéria escura é responsável por cerca de 85% de toda a matéria do universo. Sabe-se que ela possui um longo tempo de vida, que é neutra e interage com a matéria comum apenas gravitacionalmente. Muitos modelos foram aventados para descrever as possíveis partículas de matéria escura, muitos deles baseados em extensões do modelo padrão para partículas elementares. Em particular, há os modelos de partículas massivas interativas por força forte, os SIMPs, que estendem o modelo padrão com um setor escalar extra contendo todas as partículas de matéria escura, cuja estabilidade é garantida por uma simetria discreta, a qual respeitam. Essa simetria também estende as possível interações entre as partículas de matéria escura para além da usual auto-aniquilação de pares e do contexto do problema de Lee-Weinberg, descrito pelas partículas massivas interagentes por força fraca, os WIMPs. Neste trabalho postulamos a existência de um setor escalar com uma simetria discreta 'Z IND. 3'; consequente de uma quebra de simetria U(1)DM global. Esta simetria permite que processos de semi-aniquilação e aniquilação 3 "SETA" 2 também ocorram, além do usual processo de auto-aniquilação. Estudaremos esses três cenários, encontrando as soluções das equações de Boltzmann e comparando suas respectivas abundâncias com o resultado observacional, para podermos avaliar nosso modelo. Começaremos por revisar importantes conceitos da cosmologia padrão e por apresentar o modelo. Então revisaremos as soluções numéricas para as equações, e apresentaremos nossos próprios resultados para soluções semi-analíticas dos processos de semianiquilação e de aniquilação 3 'SETA' 2. Concluiremos por apresentar nossos próprios resultados para a solução da equação de Boltzmann para o processo 3 'SETA' 2 usando uma seção de choque que é dependente da temperatura, calculada com o pacote CalcHEP / Abstract: Dark matter accounts for approximately 85% of all the matter in the universe. It is known to have a long lifetime, to be neutral and to interact with ordinary matter almost only gravitationally. There have been several models to suggest possible particles for the dark matter, many of them relying on extensions to the standard model of elementary particles. In particular, there are SIMP (strongly-interacting massive particles) models, which extend the standard model by an extra scalar sector containing the dark-matter particles, whose stability is provided by a discrete symmetry. This symmetry also extends the possible interactions between the dark-matter particles to beyond the usual pair annihilation and Lee-Weinberg scenario described by the WIMP (weakly-interacting massive particles) models. In our study, we postulate the existence of an extended dark sector with a 'Z IND. 3' discrete symmetry, which is the consequence of a global U(1)DM symmetry breaking. This symmetry allows the semi-annihilation and 3 'SETA' 2 annihilation processes to take place, besides the usual self-annihilation process. We will study each of these three scenarios, solving the respective Boltzmann equations and comparing the correspondent relic abundance to the observed one, in order to verify the liability of each of them. We will start by reviewing important aspects of standard cosmology and presenting our model. Then we will review the numerical solutions for the equations, and present our own results for semi-analytical solutions to the semi- and 3 'SETA' 2 annihilation processes. We will end by presenting our own results on solving the 3 'SETA' 2 Boltzmann equation for a temperature-dependent cross-section, calculated with the CalcHEP package / Mestre

An abundance of cosmological evidence suggests that cold dark matter exists and makes up 83% of the matter in the universe. At the same time, this dark matter has eluded direct detection and its identity remains a mystery. Many large international collaborations are actively searching for dark matter through its potential annihilation in high-density regions of the universe, its creation in particle accelerators, and its interaction with Standard Model particles in low-background detectors. One of the most promising dark matter candidates is the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) which falls naturally out of extensions of the Standard Model. A variety of detectors have been employed in the search for WIMPs, which are expected to scatter with atomic nuclei, yet none have been more successful than dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chambers (TPCs). The first ton-scale liquid xenon TPC, XENON1T, began operating in 2016 and with only 34.2 days of data has set the most strict limits on the WIMP-nucleon interaction cross sections for WIMP masses above 10 GeV/c^2, with a minimum of 7.7 × 10−47 cm^2 for 35 GeV/c^2 WIMPs. One of the major keys to success for liquid xenon TPCs is our understanding of interactions in the medium through myriad measurements. Given that the expected WIMP scattering rate increases with decreasing interaction energy, there has been more focus in recent years in pushing our understanding of interactions in liquid xenon to lower energies. Additionally, as liquid xenon TPCs operate with a large electric field in the medium, an effort has been made to understand how the signal response of xenon changes as a function of the applied electric field. In this thesis, I describe the details of XENON1T, its calibration and characterization, with a special emphasis on the electronic and nuclear recoil calibrations, and the inaugural WIMP search of XENON1T. I then discuss a dedicated measurement, made in the calibration-optimized liquid xenon TPC neriX, of the signal response of low energy nuclear recoils in liquid xenon at electric fields relevant to the dark matter search. The measurements of signal response in XENON1T and neriX were performed using an analysis framework that I developed to allow a more sophisticated examination of recoil responses using GPU-accelerated simulations.

The dynamical mass determination of galaxies and systems of galaxies shows a large excess of mass above what one observes directly. This excess of mass indicates the presence of dark matter. The nature of this dark matter is still unknown and dark matter in the outer regions of large stellar structures such as clusters of galaxies might provide enough matter to close the universe. In this dissertation we investigate in detail the mass distribution of the Coma cluster. We show that optical data alone are unable to distinguish between a wide range of possible mass distribution for the Coma cluster. Low-mass models must have larger central density than high-mass models and require that the galaxies move on near-circular orbits, whereas high-mass models require the galaxy orbits to be predominantly radial. The optical data constrain the amount of dark matter very poorly. The X-ray data can also be used for a mass determination of the Coma cluster. These data may require the mass of the cluster to be more concentrated to the core than a light-traces-mass model if the central temperature of the gas is high. However, they do not put any constraint on the mass distribution beyond a Mpc or two. The above analysis, and most other approaches, assume the existence of dark matter. An alternative approach has been proposed by Milgrom (1983a,b,c): in his theory, the Newtonian law of motion breaks down in a weak field, and must be modified. The present analysis shows that this model is also consistent with optical and X-ray data on the Coma cluster, although a good fit required values for Milgrom's "universal" parameter aₒ to be 2h¹·⁵ (Hₒ = 50 h km/s/Mpc) higher than those inferred from the rotation curves of spiral galaxies. Finally, we investigate whether the model of an expanding cluster dominated by a massive binary galaxy, first suggested by Valtonen and Byrd (1979), is consistent with optical data on the surface density and velocity dispersion of the Coma cluster. We simulate the evolution of this model for a wide variety of initial conditions. We find that galaxy counts in the model can be made to agree with observation, but that the observed velocity dispersion profile cannot be reproduced. A number of other arguments suggest that the central galaxies in Coma cannot be as massive as required by the model. This model is not a viable representation of the Coma cluster.

Modern cosmology has reached an important juncture, at which the ability to make measurements of unprecedented accuracy has led to conclusions that are a fundamental challenge to natural science. The discovery that, in our current best model, the dynamics of the Universe are completely dominated by unseen dark matter and dark energy can do little but completely alter the shape of physics research in the 21st Century. Unfortunately,much of our insight into these phenomenamust come from observations of visible matter alone; this raises serious problems, as the tracing of dark matter by visible matter is as yet poorly understood. Gravitational lensing offers strong prospects for probing the interwoven history of dark and visible matter, as mass in any form may be detected where it exists untraced by baryons. In this Thesis I describe advances made in the field of weak gravitational lensing, which constrains the properties of the matter distribution on cosmological scales using a statistical analysis of the coherent gravitational distortions of distant galaxy images. I summarize the development of gravitational flexion, a higher order extension to traditional weak lensing, and describe my work done to bring the study of flexion to a stage where it may be employed to make accurate cosmological measurements. I show how flexion is sensitive to matter structure on smaller physical scales than existing lensing techniques and, therefore, promises to shed new light upon key untested predictions of cosmological models if it can be measured to sufficient accuracy. I discuss the success of my efforts in this direction, and describe the issues to be encountered in the careful analysis of this subtle gravitational signal. This research has involved advances in many areas: the calculation of theoretical flexion predictions, the refinement of image analysis methods for accurate galaxy shape estimation, and the practical application of these new flexion techniques to extragalactic imaging data. The culmination of these efforts is a new maximum likelihood analysis of the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal in the Hubble Space Telescope Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and SEDs (GEMS) Survey, incorporating improvements and modifications necessary for the combination of flexion with traditional weak lensing measurements. The results of this work, and particularly the extent to which measurements of flexion provide extra cosmological insight, are discussed in detail. The conclusion is a summary of all that has been learned about the use of flexion as an accurate probe of cosmology, and a discussion of its prospects for answering some of the many questions that remain about dark matter. Within the next few year wide-area survey telescopes will begin imaging huge volumes of deep space, with the measurement of the gravitational lensing signal being given high priority in the analysis of these data. Within this context, the primary inquiry of this Thesis is the extent to which the application of flexion measurement techniques will help shed new light upon the unseen, and currently poorly understood, components of the Universe.