Related papers: Reflections on the search for particle dark matter…
More and more claims of having detected WIMP dark matter are being put forward. Some are discussed here, stressing the importance of exploiting distinctive signatures to ascertain their WIMP origin. The best signals for WIMP discovery are…
Modern cosmology successfully deals with the origin and the evolution of the Universe at large scales, but it is unable to completely answer the question about the nature of the fundamental objects that it is describing. As a matter of…
The nature of dark matter is one of the most pressing questions in particle physics. Yet all our present knowledge of the dark sector to date comes from its gravitational interactions with astrophysical systems. Moreover, astronomical…
The quest for the particle nature of dark matter is one of the big open questions of modern physics. A well motivated candidate for dark matter is the so-called WIMP - a weakly interacting massive particle. Recently several theoretically…
Ordinary baryonic particles (such as protons and neutrons) account for only one-sixth of the total matter in the Universe. The remainder is a mysterious "dark matter" component, which does not interact via the electromagnetic force and thus…
We will review the experimental aspects of the direct search for WIMP dark matter. In thin search, one looks in a terrestrial target for nuclear recoils produced by the impacts with WIMPs from the galatic halo. After describing the…
The leading direct dark matter search experiments: CDMS, Edelweis and DAMA/NaI exhibit different results for different approaches to the problem. This contradiction can reflect a nontrivial and probably a multi-component nature of the…
In this review, we discuss the role of the various experimental programs taking part in the broader effort to identify the particle nature of dark matter. In particular, we focus on electroweak scale dark matter particles and discuss a wide…
Dark matter particles populating our galactic halo could be directly detected by measuring their scattering off target nuclei or electrons in a suitable detector. As this interaction is expected to occur with very low probability and would…
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…
Several ideas for new physics beyond the standard model may provide particle candidates for the dark matter in the Galactic halo. The two leading candidates are an axion and a weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP), such as the…
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…
Although weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) have long been among the most studied and theoretically attractive classes of candidates for the dark matter of our universe, the lack of their detection in direct detection and collider…
From astronomical observations, we know that dark matter exists, makes up 23% of the mass budget of the Universe, clusters strongly to form the load-bearing frame of structure for galaxy formation, and hardly interacts with ordinary matter…
This brief summary targets feebly interacting massive particles, FIMPs, which are interesting candidates for dark matter. The cosmic history of FIMP dark matter often leads to predictions of long-lived mediator particles at laboratory…
I will begin by reviewing the evidence for Dark Matter in the Universe, as well as the candidates for dark matter. At most 20% of the dark matter in galaxies can be in the form of MACHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects); the remainder appears…
Ordinary baryonic particles (such as protons and neutrons) account for only one-sixth of the total matter in the Universe. The remainder is a mysterious "dark matter" component, which does not interact via electromagnetism and thus neither…
Dark matter may consist of feebly interacting massive particles (FIMPs) that never thermalized with the cosmic plasma. Their relic density is achieved via freeze-in for a wide range of masses, significantly expanding the model space that…
We review various issues related to the direct detection of constituents of dark matter, which are assumed to be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). We specifically consider heavy WIMPs such as: 1) The lightest supersymmetric…
The fundamental nature of Dark Matter (DM) has not been established. Indeed, beyond its gravitational effects, DM remains undetected by present experiments. In this situation, it is reasonable to wonder if other alternatives can effectively…