The Detection of Dark Galaxies in Blind HI Surveys

One explanation for the disparity between Cold Dark Matter predictions of galaxy numbers and observations could be that there are numerous dark galaxies in the Universe. These galaxies may still contain baryons, but no stars, and may be detectable in the 21cm line of atomic hydrogen. In this paper we describe a numerical model of the galaxy population and predict what might be found in blind 21cm surveys. We describe the detection of a dark galaxy candidate (VIRGOHI21) and discuss a model of its origin.