Related papers: Dark Matter and MOOCs
These notes are based on a sequence of 4 lectures delivered at the 2024 Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) and at the Universit\`a degli Studi di Padova. They are intended for graduate students at the early stages of their study of…
The dark matter problem is almost a century old. Since the 1930s evidence has been growing that our cosmos is dominated by a new form of non-baryonic matter, that holds galaxies and clusters together and influences cosmic structures up to…
The nature of the dark matter in the Universe is one of the hardest unsolved problems in modern physics. Indeed, on one hand, the overwhelming indirect evidence from astrophysics seems to leave no doubt about its existence; on the other…
Dark matter is one of the pillars of the current standard model of structure formation: it is assumed to constitute most of the matter in the Universe. However, it can so far only be probed indirectly through its gravitational effects, and…
In this article we address the mystery of dark matter. We expound the various evidences, astrophysical and cosmological, leading to hypothesize the existence of an invisible form of matter, whose attempts at detecting it have so far all…
These lectures have been given to particle physicists, mostly experimentalists and very briefly and at a pedestrian level review the problems of dark matter. The content of the lectures is the following: 1. Introduction. 2. Cosmological…
Evidence has continued to accumulate over the last few decades as to the existence and nature of dark matter. Depending on the particle candidate, the dark matter can exhibit one of several cosmologically defined models: hot dark matter,…
It is now, generally, believed that the presence of some form of dark matter is essential to explain the flat rotation curves of galaxies, and anomalous large velocities of galaxies in the clusters and superclusters. This dark matter turns…
These lectures, given at the 2014 Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI), are an introduction to what we know at present about dark matter and the major current experimental and observational efforts to identify what it consists of.…
Dark matter is one of the main puzzles in fundamental physics and the goal of a diverse, multi-pronged research program. Underground and astrophysical searches search for dark matter particles in the cosmos, either by interacting directly…
The Cold Dark Matter theory of gravitationally-driven hierarchical structure formation has earned its status as a paradigm by explaining the distribution of matter over large spans of cosmic distance and time. However, its central tenet,…
Dark matter is a fundamental constituent of the universe, which is needed to explain a wide variety of astrophysical and cosmological observations. Although the existence of dark matter was first postulated nearly a century ago and its…
Observations in the optical, in X-rays, and gravitational lensing of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure are beginning to provide clues to the dark matter problem. I review the impact of these observations on some of…
In these lectures, I describe a variety of efforts to identify or constrain the identity of dark matter by detecting the annihilation or decay products of these particles, or their effects. After reviewing the motivation for indirect…
We review the features of Dark Matter as a particle, presenting some old and new instructive models, and looking for their physical implications in the early universe and in the process of structure formation. We also present a schematic of…
The physical nature of most of the gravitating mass in the universe is completely mysterious. The astrophysical evidence for the presence of this dark matter and astrophysical constraints on its properties will be reviewed. The most popular…
There is a growing sense of `crisis' in the dark matter community, due to the absence of evidence for the most popular candidates such as weakly interacting massive particles, axions, and sterile neutrinos, despite the enormous effort that…
Dark matter represents currently an outstanding problem in both cosmology and particle physics. In this review we discuss the possible explanations for dark matter and the experimental observables which can eventually lead to the discovery…
In this paper we review the main theoretical and experimental achievements in the field of Dark Matter from the Cosmological and Astrophysical point of view. We revisit it from the very first surveys of local astrophysical matter, up to the…
There is strong evidence for a large fraction of dark matter in the Universe. Some of the evidence and candidates for dark matter are reviewed. Dark matter in spiral galaxies may be in the form of cold dense clouds of molecular hydrogen.…