Dark Halo

One halo brought sight to Brielle. Another offers sweet relief from what she sees. Brielle can’t help but see the Celestial. Even without the halo, the invisible realm is everywhere she looks. It’s impossibly beautiful—and terrifying, especially now. Because a battle rages above Stratus, Oregon. The Terrestrial Veil is ripping, and demons walk the streets past unseeing mortals. Dark, sticky fear drips from every face, and nightmares haunt Brielle’s sleep. Worst of all, Jake is gone. The only boy she’s ever loved has been taken by the demon, Damien. When she receives instructions from the Throne Room leading her to Jake, she unknowingly walks into a diabolical and heartbreaking trap. Now she’s stranded in a sulfurous desert with the Prince of Darkness himself, and he’s offering her another halo—a mirrored ring that will destroy her Celestial vision. All she has to do is wear it and she’ll see no more of the invisible world. No more fear. No more nightmares. No more demons. It’s a gift. And best of all: it comes with the promise of a future with Jake, something the Throne Room seems to be taking from her. Will Brielle trade the beauty of the Celestial and the truth of the world around her just to feel ordinary again?

An important, open research topic today is to understand the relevance that dark matter halo substructure may have for dark matter searches. In the standard cosmological model, halo substructure or subhalos are predicted to be largely abundant inside larger halos, for example, galaxies such as ours, and are thought to form first and later merge to form larger structures. Dwarf satellite galaxies—the most massive exponents of halo substructure in our own galaxy—are already known to be excellent targets for dark matter searches, and indeed, they are constantly scrutinized by current gamma-ray experiments in the search for dark matter signals. Lighter subhalos not massive enough to have a visible counterpart of stars and gas may be good targets as well, given their typical abundances and distances. In addition, the clumpy distribution of subhalos residing in larger halos may boost the dark matter signals considerably. In an era in which gamma-ray experiments possess, for the first time, the exciting potential to put to test the preferred dark matter particle theories, a profound knowledge of dark matter astrophysical targets and scenarios is mandatory should we aim for accurate predictions of dark matter-induced fluxes for investing significant telescope observing time on selected targets and for deriving robust conclusions from our dark matter search efforts. In this regard, a precise characterization of the statistical and structural properties of subhalos becomes critical. In this Special Issue, we aim to summarize where we stand today on our knowledge of the different aspects of the dark matter halo substructure; to identify what are the remaining big questions, and how we could address these; and, by doing so, to find new avenues for research.

"The art of war. Your artistic skills will be tested, Spartan. Arm yourself and prepare for intense coloring action as you drop into forty-four black-and-white original illustrations filled with your favorite characters and vehicles from the Halo® franchise. Create patterns and add some color to Master Chief, the UNSC Infinity, and more!"--Page 4 of cover

The universe of Halo is remarkably vast in scale and astonishingly elaborate in detail, telling rich stories filled with bold characters, breathtaking worlds, and thrilling conflicts. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Halo, Dark Horse and 343 Industries have teamed up to deliver the most definitive guide to the universe thus far. The Halo Encyclopedia­ Deluxe Edition holds some of the Halo universe’s greatest secrets, which is why it is contained within a Forerunner cylix—a device that holds their civilization’s greatest secrets! The Deluxe Edition also comes with a cover exclusive to this edition, as well as a lithograph not found anywhere else.

TheFifthHEIDELBERGInternationalConferenceonDarkMatterinAst- and Particle Physics, DARK 2004, took place at Texas A&M University, College Station Texas, USA, October 3–9, 2004. It was, after Cape Town 2002, the second conference of this series held outside Germany. The earlier meetings, starting in 1996, were held in Heidelberg. Dark Matter is still one of the most exciting and central ?elds of ast- physics, particle physics and cosmology. The conference covered, as usual for this series, a large range of topics, theoretical and experimental. Theoretical talks covered SUSY/SUGRA phenomenology, which provides at present a preferred theoretical framework for the existence of cold dark matter. Also included were other possible explanations of dark matter such as SUSY Q balls, exciting New Symmetries, etc. The most important experiments in the underground search for cold and hot dark matter were presented. Talks describing the current experimental dark matter bounds, what might be obtained in the near future, and the reach of future large (i.e. one ton) detectors were given. The potential of future colliders to correlate accelerator physics with dark matter searches was also outlined. Thus the reader will be able to see the present status and future prospects in the search for dark matter. The exciting astronomical evidence for dark matter and corresponding observations concerning the Milky Way’s black hole, high-redshift clusters, wakes in dark matter halos were other important topics at the conference.

The Master Chief is back. The legendary super soldier returns in Halo Infinite. 343 Industries and Microsoft are building the biggest and most visually spectacular Halo yet. Halo Infinite debuts on the Xbox family of consoles, including Xbox Series X, Microsoft's latest and most powerful game console. To take full advantage of its prodigious graphical prowess, 343 Industries built an all-new, next-generation game engine, giving their world-class artists the tools and technology to realize the worlds, war, and wonder of the Halo universe in unprecedented style and fidelity. 343 Industries have given Dark Horse access to the art and artists who've brought Halo Infinite to vibrant, vivid life. It's all here in unparalleled detail, the heroes you've grown to love--the Master Chief, the brave soldiers of the UNSC, as well as the weapons, vehicles, villains and vistas--and of course, the eponymous and magnificent environments of Halo itself. The Art of Halo Infinite also features a brand-new cover from legendary concept artist and Halo Infinite's Art Director, Sparth! Join us as we take you from concept to launch inside the artwork of the most ambitious Halo game to date.

This massive collection features three classic Halo tales by some of the best writers and artists in comics. Halo: Uprising follows the Master Chief as he single-handedly takes on the Covenant's miles-long Forerunner Dreadnought as it makes its way to Earth! Then, join the ranks of the UNSC's meanest, most battle-hardened Marines in Helljumper, as a group of ODST respond to a remote science colony's SOS call and discover an enormous Covenant military presence! Finally, a UNSC ship encounters a strange phenomenon that sends it plummeting toward an unknown planet. The Spartan Black fireteam needs to unlock the secrets of an ancient Forerunner installation if they're going to survive the experience but, to complicate matters, they're not the only ones shipwrecked. Check out their story in Halo: Blood Line!

If standard gravitational theory is correct, then most of the matterin the universe is in an unidentified form which does not emit enoughlight to have been detected by current instrumentation. This book isthe second editon of the lectures given at the 4th Jerusalem WinterSchool for Theoretical Physics, with new material added. The lecturesare devoted to the missing matter problem in the universe, thesearch to understand dark matter. The goal of this volume is to makecurrent research work on unseen matter accessible to students withoutprior experience in this area and to provide insights for experts inrelated research fields. Due to the pedagogical nature of the originallectures and the intense discussions between the lecturers and thestudents, the written lectures included in this volume often containtechniques and explanations not found in more formal journalpublications.