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The most important problem in fundamental physics is the description of the contents of the Universe. Today, we know that 95% thereof is totally unknown. Two thirds of that amount is the mysterious Dark Energy described in an interesting…
The search for dark matter is a very wide and active field of research. Many potential hints of dark matter have appeared recently which led to a burst of theoretical activity and model building. I necessarily concentrate here only in some…
Despite the observational success of the standard model of cosmology, present-day observations do not tightly constrain the nature of dark matter and dark energy and modifications to the theory of general relativity. Here, we will discuss…
SUSY models with a modified dark sector require constraints to be reinterpreted, which may allow for scenarios with low tuning. A modified dark sector can also change the phenomenology greatly. The addition of the QCD axion to the Minimal…
Despite the overwhelming evidence for the existence of dark energy and dark matter, their underlying fundamental physics remains unknown. This review article explores the tantalizing possibility that the dark sector includes new light…
For physicists, recent developments in astrophysics and cosmology present exciting challenges. We are conducting "experiments" in energy regimes some of which will be probed by accelerators in the near future, and others which are…
We show that supersymmetric "Dark Force" models with gravity mediation are viable. To this end, we analyse a simple string-inspired supersymmetric hidden sector model that interacts with the visible sector via kinetic mixing of a light…
The search for dark matter and physics beyond the Standard Model has grown to encompass a highly interdisciplinary approach. In this review, we survey recent searches for light, weakly-coupled particles - axions and dark photons - over the…
We study cosmic strings in the complex symmetron model, a scalar-tensor theory with a spontaneously broken local $U(1)$ symmetry in low matter density regions. Using numerical simulations, we show that these strings preferentially attach to…
Dark sectors, consisting of new, light, weakly-coupled particles that do not interact with the known strong, weak, or electromagnetic forces, are a particularly compelling possibility for new physics. Nature may contain numerous dark…
Recent astrophysical observations have motivated novel theoretical models of the dark matter sector. A class of such models predicts the existence of GeV scale cosmic strings that communicate with the standard model sector by Aharonov-Bohm…
In hidden sector models, dark matter does not directly couple to the particle content of the Standard Model, strongly suppressing rates at direct detection experiments, while still allowing for large signals from annihilation. In this…
We consider candidates for dark matter in models of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking, in which the supersymmetry breaking sector is weakly coupled and calculable. Such models typically contain classically flat directions, that receive…
The majority of the matter in the universe is still unidentified and under investigation by both direct and indirect means. Many experiments searching for the recoil of dark-matter particles off target nuclei in underground laboratories…
We present a detailed study of the oscillations and optical properties for vacuum, in a model for the dark sector that contains axion-like particles and hidden photons. In this model, both can couple to photons. We provide bounds for the…
(Abridged) Present cosmological constraints and the absence of a direct detection and identification of any dark matter particle candidate leave room to the possibility that the dark sector of the Universe be actually more complex than it…
We discuss degenerate vector dark matter and dark photon that are induced from hidden $SU(2)_H$ gauge sector where it is spontaneously broken by vacuum expectation value of $SU(2)_H$ doublet. Kinetic mixing between $SU(2)_H$ and $U(1)_Y$…
Despite significant experimental sensitivity to point-like, weakly interacting particles at the electroweak mass scale, dark matter has not been found yet. This could hint at a more complex dark sector with multiple states or composite dark…
The ability of the LHC to make statements about the dark matter problem is considered, with a specific focus on supersymmetry. After reviewing the current strategies for supersymmetry searches at the LHC (in both CMS and ATLAS), some key…
Ultralight dark photons are compelling dark matter candidates, but their allowed kinetic mixing with the Standard Model photon is severely constrained by requiring that the dark photons do not collapse into a cosmic string network in the…