Related papers: The Dark Matter Enigma
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…
I review recent developments in the direct and indirect detection of dark matter and new candidates beyond the WIMP paradigm.
Cosmological arguments proving that the universe is dominated by invisible non-baryonic matter are reviewed. Possible physical candidates for dark matter particles are discussed. A particular attention is paid to non-compensated remnants of…
In the context of the relationship between physics of cosmological dark matter and symmetry of elementary particles a wide list of dark matter candidates is possible. New symmetries provide stability of different new particles and their…
For nearly a century, more mass has been measured in galaxies than is contained in the luminous stars and gas. Through continual advances in observations and theory, it has become clear that the dark matter in galaxies is not comprised of…
Dark matter is, arguably, the most widely discussed topic in contemporary particle physics. Written in the language of particle physics and quantum field theory, these notes focus on a set of standard calculations needed to understand…
Over the past decade, a consensus picture has emerged in which roughly a quarter of the universe consists of dark matter. The observational evidence for the existence of dark matter is reviewed: rotation curves of galaxies, weak lensing…
The identity of dark matter is one of the greatest puzzles of our Universe. Its solution may be associated with supersymmetry which is a fundamental space-time symmetry that has not been verified experimentally so far. In many…
In the present work we examine the implications on dark matter searches of the possibility of a partial decay of a neutron into a dark matter particle, slightly lighter than itself. Such a scenario recently proposed is required to bridge…
Dark matter accounts for 26% of the mass-energy density of the Universe, however, its nature and origins remain the most important open questions in physics. The search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), one of the leading…
The nature of cosmological dark matter finds its explanation in physics beyond the Standard model of elementary particles. The landscape of dark matter candidates contains a wide variety of species, either elusive or hardly detectable in…
The high-quality cosmological data, which became available in the last decade, have thrusted upon us a rather preposterous composition for the universe which poses one of the greatest challenges theoretical physics has ever faced: the…
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…
The recent WMAP data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. The nature of the dark matter constituents cannot be determined till they are directly…
Modern astrophysical and cosmological models are faced with two severe theoretical difficulties, that can be summarized as the dark energy and the dark matter problems. Relative to the former, it has been stated that cosmology has entered a…
I briefly review our current understanding of dark matter and dark energy. The first part of this paper focusses on issues pertaining to dark matter including observational evidence for its existence, current constraints and the `abundance…
Modern astrophysical and cosmological models are plagued with two severe theoretical difficulties, namely, the dark energy and the dark matter problems. Relative to the former, high-precision observational data have confirmed with startling…
Two exotic elements have been introduced into the standard cosmological model: non-baryonic dark matter and dark energy. The success in converting a hypothesis into a solid theory depends strongly on whether we are able to solve the…
One of the most interesting mysteries of astrophysics is the puzzle of dark matter. Although numerous techniques have been explored and developed to detect this elusive substance, its nature remains unknown. One such method uses large…
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…