Morphology of mass distribution in galaxy clusters and properties of dark matter

• Grant number: 07/03575-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: August 01, 2007
• End date: August 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Laerte Sodré Junior
• Grantee: Luana Perez França
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

We want to obtain astrophysical constraints on the nature of dark matter. For that, we will study the distributions of dark matter, stars and gas of a well defined sample of half hundred galaxy clusters. The analysis of the morphology of these distributions (concentrations, elipticities and diferences between centroids) will be used to study the consistence of the ACDM model and to put limits on cosmological parameters and on some properties of the dark matter, like its self-interaction cross-section. (AU)