Related papers: Dark Matter Experimental Overview
Dark matter is the dominant form of matter in the universe, but its nature is unknown. It is plausibly an elementary particle, perhaps the lightest supersymmetric partner of known particle species. In this case, annihilation of dark matter…
We give an estimation of the masses of light dark matter particle and dark energy quasiparticle which can be extracted from the astrophysical data about the contributions of baryon, dark matter, and dark energy densities to the total…
Observational evidence for dark matter can be explained by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). These dark matter particle candidates could indirectly be detected through the observation of signals produced as part of WIMP…
The recent WMAP data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. Modern particle theories naturally provide viable cold dark matter candidates with masses in…
Observing the Universe, astronomers have concluded that the motion of stars can not be accounted for unless one assumes that most of the mass in the Universe is carried on by a ``dark matter", so far impervious to all attempts at being…
A huge amount of good quality data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision Cosmology. Despite…
Axions and other very light axion-like particles appear in many extensions of the Standard Model, and are leading candidates to compose part or all of the missing matter of the Universe. They also appear in models of inflation, dark…
It would be hard to find a cosmologist today who does not believe that the vast bulk of the Universe (ninety-five percent or more) is hidden from our eyes. We review the evidence for this remarkable consensus, and for the latest proposal,…
It is generally assumed that the two dark components of the energy density of the universe, a smooth component called dark energy and a fluid of nonrelativistic weakly interacting particles called dark matter, are independent of each other…
How much dark matter is there in the universe and where is it located? These are two of the most fundamental questions in cosmology. We use in this paper optical and x-ray mass determinations of galaxies, groups, and clusters of galaxies to…
In the cosmological paradigm, cold dark matter (DM) dominates the mass content of the Universe and is present at every scale. Candidates for DM include many extensions of the standard model, such as weakly interacting massive particles…
A weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) is a leading candidate of the dark matter. The WIMP dark matter abundance is determined by the freeze-out mechanism. Once we know the property of the WIMP particle such as the mass and…
I begin by briefly reviewing the evidence for the existence of Dark Matter (DM), emphasizing that {\em many} observations, at length scales between kpc (the size of the smallest galaxies) and Gpc (the Hubble radius) can be described by the…
The dynamics of the universe may be dominated by novel weakly interacting elementary particles, by baryons in an invisible form, by black holes, and globally by vacuum energy. The main arguments for and against such hypotheses are reviewed.
Rotation curve measurements provided the first strong indication that a significant fraction of matter in the Universe is non-baryonic. Since then, a tremendous amount of progress has been made on both the theoretical and experimental…
We propose that dark matter is composed of particles that naturally have the correct thermal relic density, but have neither weak-scale masses nor weak interactions. These WIMPless models emerge naturally from gauge-mediated supersymmetry…
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…
The presence of dark matter (DM) is suggested by a wealth of astrophysical and cosmological measurements. However, its underlying nature is yet unknown. Among the most promising candidates are weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs):…
The nature of dark matter is one of the major puzzles of fundamental physics, integral to the understanding of our universe across almost every epoch. The search for dark matter takes place at different energy scales, and use data ranging…
Answering well-known fundamental questions is usually regarded as the major goal of science. Discovery of other unknown and fundamental questions is, however, even more important. Recognition that "we didn't know anything" is the basic…