Baryonic Dark Matter in Galaxies

Abstract

Cosmological nucleosynthesis calculations imply that many of the baryons in the Universe must be dark. We discuss the likelihood that some of these dark baryons may reside in the discs or halos of galaxies. If they were in the form of compact objects, they would then be natural MACHO candidates, in which case they are likely to be the remnants of a first generation of pregalactic or protogalactic Population III stars. Various candidates have been proposed for such remnants - brown dwarfs, red dwarfs, white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes - and we review the many types of observations (including microlensing searches) which can be used to constrain or exclude them.