| 1. |
- Scott, Pat, 1982-
(författare)
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Searches for Particle Dark Matter : Dark stars, dark galaxies, dark halos and global supersymmetric fits
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The identity of dark matter is one of the key outstanding problems in both particle and astrophysics. In this thesis, I describe a number of complementary searches for particle dark matter. I discuss how the impact of dark matter on stars can constrain its interaction with nuclei, focussing on main sequence stars close to the Galactic Centre, and on the first stars as seen through the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. The mass and annihilation cross-section of dark matter particles can be probed with searches for gamma rays produced in astronomical targets. Dwarf galaxies and ultracompact, primordially-produced dark matter minihalos turn out to be especially promising in this respect. I illustrate how the results of these searches can be combined with constraints from accelerators and cosmology to produce a single global fit to all available data. Global fits in supersymmetry turn out to be quite technically demanding, even with the simplest predictive models and the addition of complementary data from a bevy of astronomical and terrestrial experiments; I show how genetic algorithms can help in overcoming these challenges.
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| 2. |
- Jacobsen, Sunniva, 1994-
(författare)
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Probes of New Physics : Signatures of new particles in extreme objects and ground-based experiments
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics is one of the greatest successes of the 20th century. It offers a beautiful description of the elementary par- ticles and their interactions based on symmetries and the breaking of them. Despite its success, the SM is regarded as incomplete both because it does not explain certain observed phenomena and because it exhibits fine-tuning prob- lems. This thesis explores how particles beyond the SM (BSM) interact with SM particles, and the signals we should expect from them. In particular, the classes of hypothetical, new particles denoted as "Weakly Interacting Massive Particles" (WIMPs) and "Axion-like Particles" (ALPs) are studied.This thesis consists of three papers, which all contribute to the search for new particles beyond the SM in different ways. The first paper focuses on a class of WIMPs called "inelastic DM" in which the DM particle must transfer onto a higher-mass state when it scatters off SM particles. In this paper, we have studied whether such a model can explain the discrepancy between the claimed DM signal in DAMA and the lack of one in other direct detection experiments. The second paper of this thesis focuses on ALPs and their signals in the γ-ray spectra of distant sources. ALPs and photons can oscillate in the presence of external magnetic fields, such as the ones that are expected to be present in the jets of blazars (active galactic nuclei). These oscillations should lead to an increased flux in the TeV spectra of these sources. In this paper we used data from the HAWC observatory to study whether the observed γ-ray spectra of these sources were in conflict with the expected spectra for different ALP models.The last paper in this thesis does not involve any new particles beyond the SM, but investigates whether current models of the isotropic gamma-ray back- ground (IGRB) is consistent with observations. Since searches for new par- ticles depend heavily on our understanding of astrophysical phenomena and the SM processes that take place, studies of these are important. The IGRB consists of all the diffuse γ-ray emission that cannot be assigned to individ- ual point sources. In this paper, we calculated the expected contribution to the IGRB from resolved blazars and found that this introduces an emerging tension between blazar models and observations.
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| 3. |
- Renk, Janina J., 1990-
(författare)
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Delving in the Dark : Searching for Signatures of Non-Standard Physics in Cosmological and Astrophysical Observables
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dark sectors of our Universe, dark matter and dark energy, together constitute about 96 % of the total energy content of the Universe. To date, we only have observational evidence for their existence. What is still lacking is a complete theoretical framework consistent with all observational data to embed a dark matter particle or component into the standard models of particle physics and cosmology, as well as an explanation for the nature or origin of dark energy.Since the discovery of these dark components decades ago, a variety of different theories have been proposed to overcome the shortcomings of our current standard models. To assess the viability of these non-standard theories, they ideally should be tested against all relevant available datasets. In this thesis, I show two examples of how cosmological and astrophysical observables are used to constrain or even rule out non-standard cosmological models. Further, I present the first software tool that provides a general framework to test non-standard physics with global fits to data from particle physics and cosmology simultaneously.The first example is minimally coupled covariant Galileons, a modification of General Relativity to explain dark energy without the need for a fine-tuned cosmological constant. I demonstrate how the combination of constraints arising from the integrated Sachs-Wolf effect and the propagation speed of gravitational waves can rule out all three branches of the theory.The second example shows how the existence and parameter space of cosmic superstrings can be constrained. These are the hypothesised fundamental building blocks of Type IIb Superstring theory, stretched out to cosmological scales during the phase of inflation. The theory can be tested through the unique microlensing signature of cosmic superstrings when crossing the line of sight of an observer monitoring a point-like source. I show how, based on simulations, we can estimate the expected detection rates from observations of distant Type Ia Supernovae and stars in Andromeda; from these estimates I assess the implications for the theory.Finally, I present CosmoBit, a new module for the Global and Modular Beyond-Standard Model Inference Tool (GAMBIT). \gambit allows the user to test a variety of extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics against data from, e.g. collider searches, dark matter direct and indirect detection experiments, as well as laboratory measurements of neutrino properties. CosmoBit augments this with the inclusion of cosmological likelihoods. This addition opens up the possibility to test a given model against data from, e.g. the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis proceeding minutes after the Big Bang, probes of the Cosmic Microwave Background ~ 380,000 years later, and (laboratory) measurements from the present day, 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang. Including measurements that span several different epochs and orders of magnitude in energy, the combination of CosmoBit with other GAMBIT modules provides a promising tool for shedding light on the dark sectors of the Universe.
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| 4. |
- Akrami, Yashar, 1980-
(författare)
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Supersymmetry vis-à-vis Observation : Dark Matter Constraints, Global Fits and Statistical Issues
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Weak-scale supersymmetry is one of the most favoured theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics that elegantly solves various theoretical and observational problems in both particle physics and cosmology. In this thesis, I describe the theoretical foundations of supersymmetry, issues that it can address and concrete supersymmetric models that are widely used in phenomenological studies. I discuss how the predictions of supersymmetric models may be compared with observational data from both colliders and cosmology. I show why constraints on supersymmetric parameters by direct and indirect searches of particle dark matter are of particular interest in this respect. Gamma-ray observations of astrophysical sources, in particular dwarf spheroidal galaxies, by the Fermi satellite, and recording nuclear recoil events and energies by future ton-scale direct detection experiments are shown to provide powerful tools in searches for supersymmetric dark matter and estimating supersymmetric parameters. I discuss some major statistical issues in supersymmetric global fits to experimental data. In particular, I further demonstrate that existing advanced scanning techniques may fail in correctly mapping the statistical properties of the parameter spaces even for the simplest supersymmetric models. Complementary scanning methods based on Genetic Algorithms are proposed.
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| 5. |
- Andrean, Stefio Yosse, 1991-
(författare)
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Search for Stop Using the ATLAS Detector and Performance Analysis of the Tile Calorimeter with Muons from W Decays
- 2021
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents a search for the supersymmetric partner of the top quark in the final state with one lepton. The search focuses especially in the region of the parameter space where the 2-body decay dominates. The analysis is performed using LHC full Run 2 data at √s = 13 TeV as recorded by the ATLAS detector. No significant excess above the backgrounds is observed, and 95% confidence level exclusion limits are calculated in the stop-neutralino mass plane. Stops are excluded up to 1200 GeV in the low neutralino mass scenario of below 400 GeV.The Tile Calorimeter is part of the ATLAS calorimeter system whose main task is to measure the energy of hadrons. A performance study is conducted on the Tile Calorimeter using muons from W boson decay originating from proton-proton collisions. Each calorimeter cell response is measure in data and compared with detector simulation. The azimuthal cell response uniformity is also investigated using a likelihood method. Overall, a good data to detector simulation agreement and azimuthal uniformity is observed which shows well-calibrated cells and uniform responses among the calorimeter modules.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Karpenka, Natallia V., 1986-
(författare)
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The supernova cosmology cookbook: Bayesian numerical recipes
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Theoretical and observational cosmology have enjoyed a number of significant successes over the last two decades. Cosmic microwave background measurements from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck, together with large-scale structure and supernova (SN) searches, have put very tight constraints on cosmological parameters. Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) played a central role in the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe, recognised by the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011.The last decade has seen an enormous increase in the amount of high quality SN observations, with SN catalogues now containing hundreds of objects. This number is expected to increase to thousands in the next few years, as data from next-generation missions, such as the Dark Energy Survey and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope become available. In order to exploit the vast amount of forthcoming high quality data, it is extremely important to develop robust and efficient statistical analysis methods to answer cosmological questions, most notably determining the nature of dark energy.To address these problems my work is based on nested-sampling approaches to parameter estimation and model selection and neural networks for machine-learning. Using advanced Bayesian techniques, I constrain the properties of dark-matter haloes along the SN lines-of-sight via their weak gravitational lensing effects, develop methods for classifying SNe photometrically from their lightcurves, and present results on more general issues associated with constraining cosmological parameters and testing the consistency of different SN compilations.
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| 8. |
- Rydbeck, Sara, 1981-
(författare)
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Phenomenological Studies in Cosmoparticle Physics : Expansion Histories in non-Einstein Gravity and Dark Matter at the Large Hadron Collider
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the Big Bang model has become established, the fields of cosmology and particle physics have become intertwined. A range of observations forces us to consider the phenomena of dark matter and dark energy. This interpretation is based on our understanding of gravity, while the standard model of particle physics describes the other fundamental forces in nature and fails to explain the dark components. This thesis includes two different types of studies where hypotheses of physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology are faced with what observations and experiments can tell us. The first one deals with the possibility that our theory of gravity is what has to be modified at large distances to explain the dark energy, which then need not be a contribution to the energy content at all. The expansion histories in two such frameworks are tested with data from type Ia supernovae and measurements of the baryon acoustic peak in the galaxy distribution as well as in the cosmic microwave background. The second type of study concerns the possibility of establishing the particle nature of dark matter through interactions other than gravitational. While there are ways of doing this using astrophysical observations, the uncertainties due to astrophysics and the unknown distribution of the dark matter are large. High energy particle colliders provide a way of imitating the conditions of the early universe in the laboratory, where we can hope to produce yet unknown heavy particle states and in a more controlled environment determine their properties. We study the prospects for discovering two types of weakly interacting dark matter candidates at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
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| 9. |
- Sivertsson, Sofia, 1982-
(författare)
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Studies of dark matter in and around stars
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is by now compelling evidence that most of the matter in the Universe is in the form of dark matter, a form of matter quite different from the matter we experience in every day life. The gravitational effects of this dark matter have been observed in many different ways but its true nature is still unknown. In most models, dark matter particles can annihilate with each other into standard model particles; the direct or indirect observation of such annihilation products could give important clues for the dark matter puzzle. For signals from dark matter annihilations to be detectable, typically high dark matter densities are required. Massive objects, such as stars, can increase the local dark matter density both via scattering off nucleons and by pulling in dark matter gravitationally as a star forms. Annihilations within this kind of dark matter population gravitationally bound to a star, like the Sun, give rise to a gamma ray flux. For a star which has a planetary system, dark matter can become gravitationally bound also through gravitational interactions with the planets. The interplay between the different dark matter populations in the solar system is analyzed, shedding new light on dark matter annihilations inside celestial bodies and improving the predicted experimental reach. Dark matter annihilations inside a star would also deposit energy in the star which, if abundant enough, could alter the stellar evolution. This is investigated for the very first stars in the Universe. Finally, there is a possibility for abundant small scale dark matter overdensities to have formed in the early Universe. Prospects of detecting gamma rays from such minihalos, which have survived until the present day, are discussed.
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| 10. |
- Bertoli, Gabriele, 1983-
(författare)
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Search for Supersymmetry in Monojet Final States with the ATLAS Experiment
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful particle accelerator built to date. The LHC is a proton–proton and heavy ion collider, in 2015 it operated at an un- precedented center of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 13 TeV. This thesis presents the results of the search for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics in a compressed supersymmetric squark–neutralino model. The present work uses an experimental sig- nature with a single high energetic jet and large missing transverse energy, so called monojet signature. The search is carried out using an integrated luminosity of 3.2 inverse femtobarn recorded by the ATLAS experiment in 2015. No significant excess compared to the Standard Model prediction has been observed thus a 95% CL limit has been set on the production of squark pairs with the subsequent decay ~q -> q + chi01 (q = u, d, c, s). Squark masses up to 608 GeV are excluded for m(~q) - m(chi01) = 5 GeV significantly improving earlier results.The Tile Calorimeter is the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the detector. It is designed to measure hadrons, jets, tau particles and missing energy. In order to accurately be able to properly reconstruct these physical objects a careful description of the electronic noise is required. This thesis presents the work done in updating, monitoring and studying the noise calibration constants used in the processing of data and the identification of hadronic jets. These studies showed an unexpected variation over time of the cell noise and further investigation led to discover that the tile noise filter was not behaving as expected in some situations in approximately 5% of the detector cells.
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| 11. |
- Niblaeus, Carl, 1988-
(författare)
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Studies of dark matter annihilation and production in the Universe
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this PhD thesis we investigate various aspects of particle dark matter. The proper identification of dark matter developed during the second half of the twentieth century to become one of the biggest endeavours in modern physics and astronomy. Although observations currently favour the explanation that dark matter consists of a new form of particle, no experimental search has yet provided unequivocal evidence of such a particle. Of particular importance in this thesis is the field of indirect detection of dark matter, where one searches for the particles emerging from annihilations of dark matter particles out in the Universe. Specifically, we consider dark matter annihilations in the centre of the Sun. As the Sun moves through the galaxy, some dark matter particles scatter in the Sun and lose enough energy to become bound to the Sun. They settle in the solar core and begin to annihilate, which leads to an annihilation signal from the solar direction.The thesis is built on novel research consisting of three papers and a monograph-type chapter. In the first paper we calculate the flux of high energy neutrinos coming from cosmic ray cascades in the solar atmosphere and investigate the role it plays as a background in solar dark matter searches. In the second paper we consider dark matter annihilating into long-lived mediators in the Sun, which leads to interesting new detection possibilities. A third paper explores more generally the fluxes of secondary particles from dark matter annihilations that are searched for in indirect detection. We look at the effects of changing the Monte Carlo event generator that generates the fluxes and of having polarized final states in the annihilations. Finally, we consider in a monograph-type chapter the production of dark matter in the early Universe through the freeze-out mechanism, looking at effects of higher order corrections in the calculation of the relic abundance in the minimal supersymmetric standard model.
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| 12. |
- Niblaeus, Carl
(författare)
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The Sun as a laboratory for particle physics
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the paper attached to this thesis, Paper I, we have calculated the flux of neutrinos that emanate from cosmic ray collisions in the solar atmosphere. These neutrinos are created in the cascades that follow the primary collision and can travel from their production point to a detector on Earth, interacting with the solar material and oscillating on the way. The motivation is both a better understanding of the cosmic ray interactions in the solar environment but also the fact that this neutrino flux presents an almost irreducible background for the searches for neutrinos from annihilations between dark matter particles in the Sun’s core.This interesting connection between neutrinos and dark matter make use of the Sun as a laboratory to investigate new models of particle physics. If dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), the Sun will sweep up some of these WIMPs when it moves through the halo of dark matter that our galaxy lies in. These WIMPs will become gravitationally bound to the Sun and over time accumulate in the Sun’s core. In most models WIMPs can annihilate to Standard Model particles when encountering each other. The only particle that can make it out of the Sun without being absorbed is the neutrino. The buildup of WIMPs in the solar interior can therefore lead to a detectable flux of neutrinos.Neutrino telescopes therefore search for an excess of neutrinos from the Sun. To be able to ensure that a detected flux is in fact coming from dark matter annihilations one must properly account for all other sources of neutrinos. At higher energies these are primarily neutrinos created in energetic collisions between cosmic rays and particles in the Earth’s atmosphere, but also the solar atmospheric neutrinos. The latter will be tougher to disentangle from a WIMP signal since they also come from the Sun.We calculate in Paper I the creation of the neutrinos in the solar atmosphere and propagate these neutrinos to a detector on Earth, including oscillations and interactions in the Sun and vacuum oscillations between the Sun and the Earth. We find that the expected flux is small but potentially detectable by current neutrino telescopes, although further studies are needed to fully ascertain the possibility of discovery as well as how to properly disentangle this from a potential WIMP-induced neutrino signal.
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| 13. |
- Schelke, Mia, 1972-
(författare)
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Supersymmetric Dark Matter : aspects of sfermion coannihilations
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is very strong evidence that ordinary matter in the Universe is outweighed by almost ten times as much so-called dark matter. Dark matter does neither emit nor absorb light and we do not know what it is. One of the theoretically favoured candidates is a so-called neutralino from the supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model of particle physics.A theoretical calculation of the expected cosmic neutralino density must include the so-called coannihilations. Coannihilations are particle processes in the early Universe with any two supersymmetric particles in the initial state and any two Standard Model particles in the final state. In this thesis we discuss the importance of these processes for the calculation of the relic density. We will go through some details in the calculation of coannihilations with one or two so-called sfermions in the initial state. This includes a discussion of Feynman diagrams with clashing arrows, a calculation of colour factors and a discussion of ghosts in non-Abelian field theory. Supersymmetric models contain a large number of free parameters on which the masses and couplings depend. The requirement, that the predicted density of cosmic neutralinos must agree with the density observed for the unknown dark matter, will constrain the parameters. Other constraints come from experiments which are not related to cosmology. For instance, the supersymmetric loop contribution to the rare b -> sγ decay should agree with the measured branching fraction. The principles of the calculation of the rare decay are discussed in this thesis. Also on-going and planned searches for cosmic neutralinos can constrain the parameters. In one of the accompanying papers in the thesis we compare the detection prospects for several current and future searches for neutralino dark matter.
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| 14. |
- Widmark, Axel, 1989-
(författare)
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Dark Matter in the Milky Way
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den här licenciatuppsatsen bygger på två vetenskapliga artiklar, varav den första är skriven som ensamförfattare och den andra är skriven tillsammans med Dr. Giacomo Monari. De är båda på temat mörk materia i Vintergatan.Den första artikeln handlar om mörk materia som fångas i solen. Förutsatt att mörk materia består av partiklar som interagerar via den svaga kraften, med en massa av storleksordningen 10--1000 GeV, så kan sådana partiklar kollidera med atomkärnor i solens inre, förlora rörelseenergi och bli gravitationellt bundna. Väl infångad så kommer en mörk materia--partikel att fortsätta kollidera och förlora rörelseenergi tills den har uppnått termisk jämvikt med solens kärna. Givet att infångade och termaliserade mörk materia--partiklar har blivit tillräckligt många till antalet så kan dessa partiklar annihiliera och producera standard modell--partiklar. Neutriner som produceras i en sådan process skulle kunna detekteras i ett neutrinoteleskop på jorden, vilket vore ett sätt att indirekt detektera mörk materia. I artikeln har jag utforskat denna termaliseringsprocess och den tid det tar för en infångad partikel att uppnå termisk jämvikt. Jag har funnit att termaliseringstiden är kort jämfört med solens ålder och kan försummas, utom i vissa finjusterade specialfall.I den andra artikeln har vi utfört en dynamisk mätning av massdensiteten i solens närområde. Astrometri från rymdteleskopet Gaia ger information om stjärnors vertikala hastighetsfördelning och hur deras antaltäthet avtar med avstånd från galaxskivan. Genom att anta jämvikt så kan man relatera dessa två fördelning till varandra genom gravitationspotentialen de rör sig genom, vilket i sin tur ger galaxskivans massfördelning. Först och främst så har vi gjort framsteg i fråga om statistisk modellering; för första gången har mätfel på alla enskilda stjärnor tagits i beaktning. Vi har funnit en massdensitet som stämmer överens med de flesta tidigare mätningar och har även kunnat dra slutsatser om solens position och hastighet i förhållande till galaxskivan.
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