Related papers: Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and M…
Supersymmetric particles represent the best motivated candidates to fill the Dark Matter gap, and are actively hunted by a number of competing experiments. Discriminating experiments are testing for the first time SUSY models compatible…
Cosmological observations and the dynamics of the Milky Way provide ample evidence for an invisible and dominant mass component. This so-called dark matter could be made of new, colour and charge neutral particles, which were…
The elucidation of the nature of dark matter is one of the challenging tasks in astroparticle physics. A brief overview on the different methods to search directly for dark matter in form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) is…
Astrophysical observations indicate that about 23% of the energy density of the universe is in the form of non-baryonic particles beyond the standard model of particle physics. One exciting and well motivated candidate is the lightest…
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…
An extraordinarily rich zoo of non-baryonic Dark Matter candidates has been proposed over the last three decades. Here we present a 10-point test that a new particle has to pass, in order to be considered a viable DM candidate: I.) Does it…
Searches for dark matter (DM) constituents are presently mainly focused on axions and WIMPs despite the fact that far higher mass constituents are viable. We discuss and dispute whether axions exist and those arguments for WIMPs which arise…
I review prospects for detecting dark matter in space-based experiments, with an emphasis on recent developments. I propose the ``Martha Stewart criterion'' for identifying dark matter candidates that are particularly worth investigation…
The identity of dark matter is one of the key outstanding problems in both particle and astrophysics. In this thesis, I review some candidates of dark matter, especially WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) which is one of the best…
Many theoretically well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics predict the existence of the axion and further ultralight axion-like particles. They may constitute the mysterious dark matter in the universe and solve…
After a brief introduction to dark matter in general and to WIMPs as candidates, we review recent results of direct dark matter searches. We concentrate on older and more recent hints pointing to light WIMP's with mass below 10 GeV.
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are among the favored candidates for cold dark matter in the universe. The phenomenology of supersymmetric WIMPs has been quite developed during recent years. However, there are other…
Whilst the need for dark matter was established almost a century ago, only its gravitational interaction has been confirmed so far, allowing for plethora of models for dark matter. The Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) category…
Axions and other very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs) may be non-thermally produced in the early universe and survive as constituents of the dark universe. We describe their theoretical motivation and their phenomenology. A huge…
Although well established observations on cosmological, cluster, and galactic scales strongly suggest the existence of dark matter (DM), our understanding of its non-gravitational properties is still lacking. I review basic aspects of…
We know that dark matter constitutes 85% of all the matter in the Universe, but we do not know of what it is made. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates proposed, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place, as…
Direct searches for dark matter lead to serious problems for simple models with stable neutral Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as candidates for dark matter. A possibility is discussed that new stable quarks and charged leptons…
I review recent developments in the direct and indirect detection of dark matter and new candidates beyond the WIMP paradigm.
These lectures on non-baryonic dark matter matter are divided into two parts. In the first part, I discuss the need for non-baryonic dark matter in light of recent results in cosmology, and I present some of the most popular candidates for…
There is a strong possibility that the particles making up the dark matter in the Universe have a mass below 1 eV and in many important situations exhibit a wave-like behavior. Amongst the candidates the axion stands out as particularly…