Related papers: Particle Dark Matter
We know from cosmological and astrophysical observations that more than 80% of the matter density in the Universe is non-luminous, or dark. This non-baryonic dark matter could be composed of neutral, heavy particles, which were…
This short review was prepared as an introduction to the Royal Society's 'Dark Matter' conference. It addresses the embarrassing fact that 95% of the universe is unaccounted for. Favoured dark matter candidates are axions or…
This report is a brief review of the efforts to explain the nature of non-baryonic dark matter and of the studies devoted to the search for relic particles. Among the different dark matter candidates, special attention is devoted to relic…
One of the great scientific enigmas still unsolved, the existence of dark matter, is reviewed. Simple gravitational arguments imply that most of the mass in the Universe, at least 90%, is some (unknown) non-luminous matter. Some particle…
Astronomical observations from small galaxies to the largest scales in the universe can be consistently explained by the simple idea of dark matter. The nature of dark matter is however still unknown. Empirically it cannot be any of the…
After a short review of the arguments for the existence of Particle Dark Matter in the Universe, I list the most plausible candidates provided by particle physics, i.e. neutrinos, axions, and WIMPs. In each case I briefly describe how to…
Cosmological nucleosynthesis calculations imply that many of the baryons in the Universe must be dark. We discuss the likelihood that some of these dark baryons may reside in the discs or halos of galaxies. If they were in the form of…
Dark Matter is one of the most intriguing riddles of modern astrophysics. The Standard Cosmological Model implies that only 4.5% of the mass-energy of the Universe is baryonic matter and the remaining 95% is unknown. Of this remainder, 22%…
The nature of the dark matter in the haloes of galaxies is one of the outstanding questions in astrophysics. All stellar candidates, until recently thought to be likely baryonic contributions to the Halo of our Galaxy, are shown to be ruled…
We review some recent determinations of the amount of dark matter on galactic and larger scales, with special attention to the dark matter in the Milky Way. We then briefly review the motivation for and basic physics of several dark matter…
The nature of the dark matter in the Halo of our Galaxy remains a mystery. Arguments are presented that the dark matter does not consist of ordinary stellar or substellar objects, i.e., the dark matter is not made of faint stars, brown…
The problems of simple elementary weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) appeal to extend the physical basis for nonbaryonic dark matter. Such extension involves more sophisticated dark matter candidates from physics beyond the…
One of the most important problems in astrophysics concerns the nature of the dark matter in galactic halos, whose presence is implied mainly by the observed flat rotation curves in spiral galaxies. Due to the Pauli exclusion principle it…
The cosmological observations of gravitational lenses, cosmic microwave background, rotation speed of stars in galaxies confirm the existence of about 27% dark matter in the Universe. The nature of these particles is unknown, however, there…
The existence of dark matter provides strong evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. Extending the Standard Model with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry and/or supersymmetry, compelling dark matter candidates appear. For the axion, the…
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…
The nonbaryonic dark matter of the Universe can consist of new stable charged leptons and quarks, if they are hidden in elusive "dark atoms" of composite dark matter. Such possibility can be compatible with the severe constraints on…
Dark matter detection experiments are getting ever closer to the sensitivity needed to detect the primary particle physics candidates for nonbaryonic dark matter. Indirect detection methods include searching for antimatter and gamma rays,…
Newtonian mechanics indicates that galaxies and galaxy clusters are much more massive than we would have guessed from their luminosities, with the discrepancy being generally attributed to dark matter halos. An alternative hypothesis is…
The axion has emerged in recent years as a leading particle candidate to provide the mysterious dark matter in the cosmos, as we review here for a general scientific audience. We describe first the historical roots of the axion in the…