Dark matter is an invisible substance that is theoretically proposed to exist in the universe. It may be a major component of the matter in the universe, but it is not one of the known types of matter that make up visible objects. Suspected Newtonian gravity violations found in numerous astronomical observations can be well explained by assuming the existence of dark matter.
Some widely accepted theories suggest that dark matter is composed of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP), whose mass and interaction strength are around the electroweak scale. In addition, there are also some hypotheses that dark matter is composed of other types of particles, such as axion, sterile neutrino and so on.
Dark energy is the kind of energy that drives the universe. Neither it nor dark matter absorbs, reflects or radiates light, so we can’t directly observe it using present techniques. Humans have shown that 26.8 percent of the total mass and energy of the universe is made up of dark matter, which is like the glue that holds everything together. A new study finds that some dark matter is disappearing, and that is due to dark energy. That is to say, dark energy is likely to be consuming dark matter, a phenomenon that if correct, could have major implications for the future of the universe.
Here are our top picks as the best books on dark matter and dark energy in 2023.
1. Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Hidden 95% of the Universe
The book can be divided into two parts. The first part deals with dark matter, and the author describes many possible forms. The second part focuses on dark energy. Although dark matter and dark energy look similar, they are different phenomena. In this book, the author makes it clear that dark energy should exist. All the matter and light we can see in the universe makes up a trivial five per cent of everything. The rest is hidden. This could be the biggest puzzle that science has ever faced. Since the 1970s, astronomers have been aware that galaxies have far too little matter in them to account for the way they spin around: they should fly apart, but something concealed holds them together.
That ’something’ is dark matter – invisible material in five times the quantity of the familiar stuff of stars and planets. By the 1990s we also knew that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. Something, named dark energy, is pushing it to expand faster and faster. Across the universe, this requires enough energy that the equivalent mass would be nearly 14 times greater than all the visible material in existence. Brian Clegg explains this major conundrum in modern science and looks at how scientists are beginning to find solutions to it.
2. Introduction To Particle Dark Matter, An (Advanced Textbooks in Physics)
This book presents the state of the art in building and testing particle models for dark matter. Each chapter gives an analysis of questions, research directions, and methods within the field. More than 200 problems are included to challenge and stimulate the reader’s knowledge and provide guidance in the practical implementation of the numerous “tools of the trade” presented. Appendices summarize the basics of cosmology and particle physics needed for any quantitative understanding of particle models for dark matter. There are some questions included in this book, if you are interested in it, the book can help you. For example, what is the dark matter that fills the Universe and binds together galaxies, how was it produced, what are its interactions and particle properties?
Moreover, we should know that the paradigm of dark matter is one of the key developments at an interface of cosmology and elementary particle physics. It is also one of the foundations of the standard cosmological model. Lastly, this interdisciplinary textbook is essential reading for anyone interested in the microscopic nature of dark matter as it manifests itself in particle physics.
3. Einstein’s Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe
In the book, Evalyn Gates, an expert on all that’s dark in the universe, brings dark matter, dark energy, and even black holes to light. In 1936, Albert Einstein predicted that gravitational distortions would allow space itself to act as a telescope far more powerful than humans could ever build. Now, cosmologists at the forefront of their field are using this radical technique (“Einstein’s Telescope”) to detect the invisible. In fresh, engaging prose, astrophysicist Evalyn Gates explains how this tool is enabling scientists to uncover planets as big as the Earth, discover black holes as they whirl through space, and trace the evolution of cosmic architecture over billions of years. Powerful and accessible, Einstein’s Telescope takes us to the brink of a revolution in our understanding of the deepest mysteries of the Universe.
4. Chandra’s Cosmos: Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Other Wonders Revealed by NASA’s Premier X-Ray Observatory
In this book, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra science spokesperson Wallace H. Tucker uses a series of short, connected stories to describe the telescope’s exploration of the hot, high-energy face of the universe. The book is organized in three parts: “The Big,” covering the cosmic web, dark energy, dark matter, and massive clusters of galaxies; “The Bad,” exploring neutron stars, stellar black holes, and supermassive black holes; and “The Beautiful,” discussing stars, exoplanets, and life.
In addition, Chandra has imaged the spectacular, glowing remains of exploded stars and taken spectra showing the dispersal of their elements. Chandra has observed the region around the supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way and traced the separation of dark matter from normal matter in the collision of galaxies, contributing to both dark matter and dark energy studies. Tucker explores the implications of these observations in an entertaining, informative narrative aimed at space buffs and general readers alike.
5. Invisible Universe, The: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, And The Origin And End Of The Universe
This book describes some of the frontier problems of cosmology: our almost total ignorance of what the Universe is made up of, the mystery of its origin and its end. The book starts with a description of the historical events that led to the construction of the Big Bang model together with the stages that transformed the Universe from a very hot place to a very cold one, full with the structures that we observe today. These structures (stars, galaxies, etc.) constitute only 5% of the contents of the Universe. Concerning the remaining 95%, dubbed dark matter and dark energy, we know very little, and we have only indirect evidence of their existence.
The text describes the story and the protagonists who showed the need for the existence of this “missing matter”, the observations, and puzzles they had to solve to understand that dark matter was not ordinary matter. In addition, the book describes the hunt for dark matter, carried out with instruments operating in space, on the Earth’s surface, and in laboratories built in the bowels of the Earth. It also describes dark energy, which manifests itself in the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and appeared only a few billions of years ago. After reading it, you also can know why dark energy must exist and what its existence implies, especially for the future and the end of our Universe.
6. Dark Energy: Dark Matter Series Book 2
The book is a science fiction adventure book. Earth and much of the Milky Way galaxy are now under attack by an unknown, destructive power, and the only way Marc Zemin and his highly advanced alien friends may be able to stop it is by sacrificing themselves for everyone else. Swept away into another universe of alternate dimensions, they soon find themselves at the mercy of a mighty enemy that continuously defeats and subjects them to one harsh punishment after another. As their willpower to survive slowly diminishes, so does any hope of their ever being able to return home. That is, unless they somehow find a way to fight back and make the startling discovery of who, or what, is behind it all and why.
Dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that scientists believe permeates all of space and keeps expanding our universe at an accelerating rate. But what if it also spans across universes in a wider multiverse, and what if in other universes with different laws of physics it can behave very differently and even give rise to unique forms of life? This fiction will enhance your knowledge of dark energy and dark matter in a unique way.
7. Flat Space Cosmology: A New Model of the Universe Incorporating Astronomical Observations of Black Holes, Dark Energy and Dark Matter
In this book, the author associates dark matter and dark energy with the universe in an interesting way. This compilation based upon recent peer-reviewed journal publications encapsulates how the Flat Space Cosmology model (FSC) has become the primary competitor to the inflationary standard model of cosmology. New ideas concerning black holes, dark energy and dark matter are presented and shown to correlate extremely well with astronomical observations.
Cosmology is the study of how the universe has changed over the great span of time (roughly 14 billion years). Later centuries will look back upon the period from 1990-2030 as a ‘Golden Age’ of theoretical and observational cosmology. It is highly likely that we are on the verge of a deeper understanding of the most mysterious energy (‘dark energy’) and matter (‘dark matter’) comprising the majority of energy and matter in the universe. Some of the material presented in this book is on the cutting edge of dark energy and dark matter theoretical work.
This book summarizes, for the first time, the groundbreaking publications of two cosmologists, one from the United States and the other from India, from 2015 thru 2020. During this highly productive period, the authors stealthily published their papers in six different peer-reviewed scientific journals, so that the model could be quietly explored in all aspects before bringing it all together in a single book. This is that book! Anyone who follows the fast-changing science of cosmology, has an interest in the latest developments, and would like to know how it is that our universe appears to follow equations one would ordinarily expect for a time-reversed black hole, may find this book to be fascinating.
8. The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
In this book, Richard Panek tells the dramatic story of how scientists reached this cosmos-shattering conclusion. In vivid detail, he narrates the quest to find the “dark” matter and an even more bizarre substance called dark energy that make up 96 percent of the universe. This is perhaps the greatest mystery in all of science, and solving it will bring fame, funding, and certainly a Nobel Prize. Based on hundreds of interviews and in-depth, on-site reporting, the book offers an intimate portrait of the bitter rivalries and fruitful collaborations, the eureka moments and blind alleys, that have redefined science and reinvented the universe.
The book is fascinating and it is one of the most important stories in the history of science. In recent years, a handful of scientists has been racing to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only 4 percent of it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, and every star and planet. If you have read this book, you may know what you want to know about it.
9. Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos
For the general reader and armchair astronomer alike, in the book, Iain Nicolson’s fascinating account shows how our ideas about the nature and the content of the universe have developed. He highlights key discoveries, explains underlying concepts, and examines current thinking on dark matter and dark energy. He describes techniques that astronomers use to explore the remote recesses of the cosmos in their quest to understand its composition, evolution, and ultimate fate. Moreover, a lucid essay on the cosmos in past, present and future, is accompanied by clear diagrams, computer graphics and luminous telescopic photos. And it conveys the excitement of scientists tackling the largest problem yet uncovered.
10. Dark Energy Survey, The: The Story Of A Cosmological Experiment
This book is about the Dark Energy Survey, a cosmological experiment designed to investigate the physical nature of dark energy by measuring its effect on the expansion history of the universe and on the growth of large-scale structure. The survey saw first light in 2012, after a decade of planning, and completed observations in 2019. The collaboration designed and built a 570-megapixel camera and installed it on the four-metre Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The survey data yielded a three-dimensional map of over 300 million galaxies and a catalogue of thousands of supernovae. Analysis of the early data has confirmed remarkably accurately the model of cold dark matter and a cosmological constant.
Moreover, the chapters in the first three sections of the book were either written by these scientists or based on interviews with them. These chapters explain, for a non-specialist reader, the science analysis involved. They also describe how the project was conceived, and chronicle some of the many and diverse challenges involved in advancing our understanding of the universe. The final section is trans-disciplinary, including inputs from a philosopher, an anthropologist, visual artists and a poet. Scientific collaborations are human endeavours and the book aims to convey a sense of the wider context within which science comes about. This book is addressed to scientists, decision makers, social scientists and engineers, as well as to anyone with an interest in contemporary cosmology and astrophysics.
11. New Light on Dark Energy: A Material Structure to the Forces Leading to Proof of a Unity Breach
The book intends to challenge the monolith of the Standard Model which is uniformly advanced and adhered to by the vast majority of physicists. Everyone knows that all scientific knowledge is developed through experiments, resulting in measured evidence, which is then explained through arguments, to finally support a theory, which is thereby rendered unassailable. Sadly, some of the arguments supporting the Standard Model are (according to this author) logically and sometimes catastrophically, flawed.
In 2020, the author’s white paper entitled “On the unification of the forces” was published, which details concepts that represent a revision of that Standard Model. This short book is a rewrite of that publication, intended for the layperson, with the hope that it will advance a broader understanding of those concepts. Moreover, the book will, in a small way at least, confront the status quo. By doing so it may also help everyone to shake free from the log jam of confusion associated with the Standard Model, as well as pointing to the needless waste in today’s methods of generating electric energy. When this is proven, it will only benefit us all!
12. The Science of Subtle Energy: The Healing Power of Dark Matter
The author explores the nature of the remaining 96% of the universe’s mass-energies. Contemporary science calls this mass energy “dark matter,” and the ancients called it life force, prana, or chi. Kronn shows how this subtle energy belongs to the subatomic world and how it follows laws that are fundamentally different from those known to contemporary science.
In addition, sharing the results of his rigorous, repeatable, and predictable experiments with subtle energy, the author looks at the possible mechanisms of subtle energy’s interaction with physical matter and with the human body. He shows how the mind interacts with matter by means of subtle energy—giving us the key to understanding the placebo effect and extrasensory perception as well as the healing power of affirmations and energy medicine. Moreover, Dr. Kronn demonstrates how it’s possible to harness subtle energy and explains his development of Vital Force Technology, which integrates ancient knowledge of the life force with modern technology to generate specific subtle energy formulations for practical applications. And he presents his experimental results creating subtle energy formulas to positively influence the germination of seeds and the growth of plants. He also demonstrates the possibility of using subtle energy for creating clean and energetic-pollution-free environments for vitality and better healing.
13. ABOUT DARK ENERGY AND DARK MATTER: A SIMPLE EXPLANATION
The book tries to provide a simple explanation of dark energy and dark matter. And, what they might be. In the process, we will try to explain the following:The types of particles that constitute dark energy, as well as, and the kind of particle that constitutes dark matter.The connection that exists between the most basic dark energy particles and the invariance of the speed of light, and the connection that exists between dark matter particles and the gravitational force.At last, it concludes on the possibility that both types of particles: dark matter and gravitons could be the same.
14. Dark Matter and Dark Energy: A Challenge for Modern Cosmology
This book brings together reviews from leading international authorities on the developments in the study of dark matter and dark energy, as seen from both their cosmological and particle physics side. Studying the physical and astrophysical properties of the dark components of our Universe is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of unveiling their nature. The work developed from a doctoral school sponsored by the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation.
The book starts with a concise introduction to the standard cosmological model, as well as with a presentation of the theory of linear perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background. It covers the particle physics and cosmological aspects of dark matter and (dynamical) dark energy, including a discussion of how modified theories of gravity could provide a possible candidate for dark energy. A detailed presentation is also given of the possible ways of testing the theory in terms of cosmic microwave background, galaxy redshift surveys and weak.
15. What Is Dark Matter? (Princeton Frontiers in Physics, 7)
Particle physicist Peter Fisher introduces readers to one of the most intriguing frontiers of physics. We cannot actually see dark matter, a mysterious, nonluminous form of matter that is believed to account for about 27 percent of the mass-energy balance in the universe. But we know dark matter is present by observing its ghostly gravitational effects on the behavior and evolution of galaxies. Fisher brings readers quickly up to speed regarding the current state of the dark matter problem, offering relevant historical context as well as a close look at the cutting-edge research focused on revealing dark matter’s true nature.
Could dark matter be a new type of particle―an axion or a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) ―or something else? What have physicists ruled out so far―and why? What experimental searches are now underway and planned for the near future, in hopes of detecting dark matter on Earth or in space? Fisher explores these questions and more, illuminating what is known and unknown, and what a triumph it will be when scientists discover dark matter’s identity at last.
16. Cosmological Inflation, Dark Matter and Dark Energy
The purpose of this book is to explore the physics and cosmology of inflation, dark matter, and dark energy. Various cosmological observations support not only cosmological inflation in the early universe, which is also known as exponential cosmic expansion, but also that the expansion of the late-time universe is accelerating. To explain this phenomenon, the existence of dark energy is proposed. In addition, according to the rotation curve of galaxies, the existence of dark matter, which does not shine, is also suggested.
If primordial gravitational waves are detected in the future, the mechanism for realizing inflation can be revealed. Moreover, there exist two main candidates for dark matter. The first is a new particle, the existence of which is predicted in particle physics. The second is an astrophysical object which is not found by electromagnetic waves. Furthermore, there are two representative approaches to account for the accelerated expansion of the current universe. One is to assume the unknown dark energy in general relativity. The other is to extend the gravity theory to large scales. Therefore, if you are interested in dark matter and dark energy, the book is a good choice for you.
17. Post-modern Cosmology: Giving the Final Answers to the Mystery of Black Holes, Cosmic Rays, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Revealin (Kindle Edition)
This scientific book on post-modern cosmology contains new ideas about the universe that cannot be found in modern cosmology and which resolve the puzzling mysteries of modern cosmology, like black holes, dark matter, dark energy, the big bang, the origin of galactic cosmic rays, etc. This scientific inquiry gives answers to these puzzling mysteries as they have been derived from post-modern physics. So, in this e-book, you will realise a new theory of the universe and new truths will be revealed to you, and importantly, you will also see the long-sought mysterious connection between cosmology and particle physics. And this scientific inquiry will expose these vital aspects and the missing connection between cosmology and particle physics, and this implies that post-modern cosmology is emerging from the perception of the unity of the universe and not from the sole study of the macro universe.
Hence, what we have in post-modern cosmology is the complete picture of the universe, which this scientific e-book reveals and which our predecessors sought to see but could not. So, this inquiry is a must-have for you, if you have the earnest desire to understand the deep mysteries of the universe as only the theory of everything can reveal. So, this scientific inquiry introduces us to a new universe and to a new understanding of light and gravity. It gives a new meaning to existence and it exposes us to the ultimate fate of the universe that is different from what modern cosmology informs us.
And concerning the expansion of the universe, this scientific inquiry also reveals to us a new view of the expansion of the universe that incorporates particle physics, which is something modern cosmology could not have considered. As a result, this scientific inquiry further consolidates the newfound unity between cosmology and particle physics, and it prepares us for the exploration of the larger universe, beyond the confines of Earth and our Solar System. And this is as this scientific e-book informs us of what is happening at the distant parts of the universe, like at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and this is also as it informs us of the events of the distant past, at the period of creation. Therefore, you should get this scientific e-book and begin your journey away from modern cosmology into post-modern cosmology, which is the path of truth and the final answer to all the deep mysteries of the universe.
18. Probing Cosmic Dark Matter and Dark Energy with Weak Gravitational Lensing Statistics
In this book the applicability and the utility of two statistical approaches for understanding dark energy and dark matter with gravitational lensing measurement are introduced. For cosmological constraints on the nature of dark energy, morphological statistics called Minkowski functionals (MFs) to extract the non-Gaussian information of gravitational lensing are studied. Measuring lensing MFs from the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Lensing survey (CFHTLenS), the author clearly shows that MFs can be powerful statistics beyond the conventional approach with the two-point correlation function. Combined with the two-point correlation function, MFs can constrain the equation of state of dark energy with a precision level of approximately 3–4 % in upcoming surveys with sky coverage of 20,000 square degrees.
On the topic of dark matter, the author studied the cross-correlation of gravitational lensing and the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Dark matter annihilation is among the potential contributors to the EGB. The cross-correlation is a powerful probe of signatures of dark matter annihilation, because both cosmic shear and gamma-ray emission originate directly from the same dark matter distribution in the universe. The first measurement of the cross-correlation using a real data set obtained from CFHTLenS and the Fermi Large Area Telescope was performed. Comparing the result with theoretical predictions, an independent constraint was placed on dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter.
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