Author: Robert H. Sanders
File Type: pdf
Most astronomers and physicists now believe that the matter content of the Universe is dominated by dark matter hypothetical particles which interact with normal matter primarily through the force of gravity. Though invisible to current direct detection methods, dark matter can explain a variety of astronomical observations. This book describes how this theory has developed over the past 75 years, and why it is now a central feature of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Current attempts to directly detect dark matter locally are discussed, together with the implications for particle physics. The author comments on the sociology of these developments, demonstrating how and why scientists work and interact. Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), the leading alternative to this theory, is also presented. This fascinating overview will interest cosmologists, astronomers and particle physicists. Mathematics is kept to a minimum, so the book can be understood by non-specialists.ReviewOne of the most perplexing problems in astrophysics is the nature of the major component of the universe dark matter. Author Sanders has been a major researcher in attempts to understand it. In this historical account, the presence of dark matter is traced from its discovery in 1933, through its rediscovery by optical and radio astronomers who investigated the rotation curves of galaxies and the internal motions of clusters of galaxies. They then traced light and mass as a function of galactic radius. Remarkable insight came with the discovery of hot gas in galaxies, satellites that explored details of the cosmic microwave background and the realization that a second problem existed dark energy. Particle astrophysics and cosmology enter the picture and a realization that modified Newtonian dynamics may have to be invoked to explain phenomena that we cannot directly observe. This is a fascinating detective story, described in a personal and very readable way without much mathematics but presenting arguments that might be hard to follow without some background in physics. The appendix presents a beautiful summary of relevant definitions of astronomy. Black and white photos, graphs and drawings accompany the text. There are 6 pages of references and a 4-page index. Bill Howard, CHOICE MagazineThis is a splendid and timely book and the reader is rewarded with an insight into the tantalising conflict between the majority proponent view of dark matter and the competing viewpoint embodied in the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) hypothesis... Sanders deals in detail with the astrophysical evidence which forms the basis of the dark matter viewpoint and contrasts its successes and shortcomings with the similarly limited success of MOND. The conflict is illustrated beautifully with a detailed account of the successful interpretation of flat galactic rotation curves by both proposals but Sanders also takes time to examine the key role played by the demands of spiral galaxy stability, by studies of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies and by the unique success of MOND in providing a possible basis for the Tully-Fisher Law. What was not available to Krauss in The Fifth Essence is the mass of information gleaned over the past twenty years by satellite based x-ray and microwave instrumentation, by high spacial resolution radio astronomy and through gravitational lensing analyses. ... His book is written with the scientific community in mind and the language is uncompromisingly scientific but it is nonetheless fathomable by the non-specialist. Mathematical argument is kept to a minimum but is perhaps inevitable in discussing MOND - and there is a useful appendix which goes some way to provide a summarised background on which an inexpert reader can base a first reading. The Dark Matter Problem will find an easily accessible place on this reviewers bookshelf for some time. Brian Parsons, FAS Newsletter, Summer 2010La cosmologie est-elle en crise? Question apparemment incongrue au regard de lactuelle pretention des cosmologistes davoir perce les secrets du cosmos. Cela dit, en science, on ne reconnait bien souvent une crise quapres coup. Y aurait-il donc des signes dune possible remise en cause de la conception dominante de lunivers? Disons-le tout net oui. Par exemple, dans lactuelle theorie du big bang, 95% de lenergie et de la matiere de lunivers manque ... lappel. Pour retomber sur leurs pieds, les cosmologistes ont en effet ete obliges de postuler lexistence dune matiere et dune energie de nature inconnue constituant la quasi-totalite de lunivers, tout en reconnaissant etre incapables den detecter directement la moindre trace. Cest ce quon appelle le probleme de la matiere noire The Dark Matter Problem, qui est presente dans ce livre suivant une approche historique. Ce probleme sera-t-il resolu sans bouleversement majeur de la physique ou de la cosmologie? Pour linstant, il nest bien s-r pas possible de repondre ... une telle question. Mais il est tres instructif de suivre les errements de la recherche en ce domaine. La matiere noire, cest effectivement larlesienne de la cosmologie. On en parle beaucoup depuis 40 ans on est convaincu de son existence mais on ne la jamais detectee directement. Lastronome Fritz Zwicky fut le premier ... montrer dans les annees 1930 quil manquait de la matiere dans les amas de galaxies. Ne sachant pas trop quoi en penser, les astrophysiciens preterent peu attention ... cette anomalie. Mais elle refit surface dans les annees 1970 quand on sapercut que les galaxies tournaient plus vite quelles auraient d-, ... en juger par la masse de leur matiere visible. Jusque l..., rien de vraiment dramatique. Pourquoi faudrait-il que toute la matiere soit visible? Le probleme allait toutefois se corser. Toujours dans ces annees 1970, la theorie du big bang assoit son hegemonie. Or sil existe autant de matiere que le suggere la dynami... readable and enjoyable book... On the whole, The Dark Matter Problem will benefit advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and some researchers. Students and professionals in the field may receive this book as a training tool that highlights the current deficiencies of the dark-matter paradigm. Understanding those deficiencies is an important part of the learning process. Liliya L. R. Williams, Physics Today Book DescriptionDescribing the development of dark matter theory, this book shows why it is now a central feature of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. This fascinating overview will interest cosmologists, astronomers and particle physicists. Mathematics is kept to a minimum, so the book can be understood by non-specialists.