Dark Matter as a Bose-Einstein Condensate
A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997). This special issue belongs to the section "Cosmology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 9602
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Physics, Babes-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Rumania
Interests: general relativity; cosmology; modified theories of gravity; dark matter and dark energy; Bose-Einstein Condensation; high energy astrophysics; stellar structure; mathematical physics; Jacobi stability; nonlinear dynamical systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: modified gravity; dark energy; cosmology; dark matter; black holes; energy conditions; causal structure of spacetime
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
The existence of dark matter is one of the fundamental assumptions of modern cosmology and astrophysics, and its nature is one of the most important open questions in physics. In fact, after almost a century of intensive study and research, the properties of dark matter remain elusive. Presently, all available information on the dark sector is obtained from the study of its gravitational interactions with astrophysical systems. Despite the intensive experimental effort, no direct detection of dark matter particles has been reported yet.
If dark matter is composed of massive bosons, a Bose–Einstein Condensation process must have occurred during cosmological evolution. Therefore, galactic dark matter may be in the form of a condensate, characterized by a strong self-interaction. Usually, condensate dark matter is described as a quantum fluid satisfying the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. By using the hydrodynamic representation of this equation, one obtains the basic equations describing the physical properties of galactic halos, which allow an in-depth comparison of the theoretical predictions with observations. In particular, much work has been devoted to the fitting of the observed galactic rotation curves with the condensate dark matter model.
Even though the Bose–Einstein Condensation process has been extensively studied, many important questions have yet to be answered. Can we infer the physical state of the dark matter from galactic- and extra-galactic-scale astrophysical observations? What observations may support the existence of a dark matter condensate, and what observations would contradict it? Moreover, we would like to know in what cosmological epoch the condensation process took place. What was the order of the phase transition (crossover), and how long the transition lasted?
It is the goal of this Special Issue to bring together experts from different fields (theoretical physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and even condensed matter) to further investigate, analyze, and develop the idea of dark matter as a Bose–Einstein Condensate. The topics to be covered range from galactic dynamics to the cosmology of the early- and present-day Universe, and novel theoretical ideas and comprehensive comparisons between theory and observations are welcomed. A better understanding of the numerical values of the Bose–Einstein condensation parameters would be very helpful to obtain accurate information on the properties of dark matter. The advances expected from this Special Issue may lead to the development of powerful methods for the observational testing of the predictions of the Bose–Einstein Condensation model on astrophysical and cosmological scales and for the possible confirmation of the existence of condensate dark matter.
Prof. Dr. Tiberiu Harko
Prof. Dr. Francisco S. N. Lobo
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Dark matter
- Bose–Einstein Condensation
- Cosmological phase transitions
- Observational tests of condensate dark matter
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