Related papers: WIMP and Axion Dark Matter
These lectures are intended to provide a brief pedagogical review of dark matter for the newcomer to the subject. We begin with a discussion of the astrophysical evidence for dark matter. The standard weakly-interacting massive particle…
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…
Dark matter constitutes about $23\%$ of the total energy density of the universe but its properties are still little known besides that it should be composed by cold and weakly interacting particles. Many beyond standard model theories can…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are leading candidates for the dominant part of the mass density of the Universe. Here we will review direct WIMP detection techniques by giving examples of currently running experiments, and…
The need for dark matter is briefly reviewed. A wealth of observational information points to the existence of a non-baryonic component. To the theoretically favoured candidates today belong axions, supersymmetric particles, and to some…
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…
One of the most popular classes of candidates for dark matter are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), i.e. particles possessing masses and couplings falling roughly within the electroweak scale. Apart from offering a natural…
We know that dark matter constitutes 85% of all the matter in the Universe, but we do not know of what it is made. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates proposed, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place, as…
There is almost universal agreement among astronomers that most of the mass in the Universe and most of the mass in the Galactic halo is dark. Many lines of reasoning suggest that the dark matter consists of some new, as yet undiscovered,…
An ever-increasing body of evidence suggests that weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) constitute the bulk of the matter in the Universe. We illustrate how experimental data, dimensional analysis and Standard Model particle physics…
In supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, the lightest neutralino, the gravitino, and the axino can appear as the lightest supersymmetric particle and as such provide a compelling explanation of the non-baryonic dark matter in our…
The best particle candidates for non--baryonic cold dark matter are reviewed, namely, neutralino, axion, axino and Majoron. These particles are considered in the context of cosmological models with the restrictions given by the observed…
We describe two natural scenarios in which both dark matter WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) and a variety of supersymmetric partners should be discovered in the foreseeable future. In the first scenario, the WIMPs are…
The evidence for the existence of dark matter in the universe is reviewed. A general picture emerges, where both baryonic and non-baryonic dark matter is needed to explain current observations. In particular, a wealth of observational…
There exist several well-motivated candidates for non-baryonic cold dark matter, including neutralinos, axions, axinos, gravitinos, Wimpzillas. I review the dark matter properties of the neutralino and the current status of its detection. I…
Extremely weakly interacting massive particles (E-WIMPs) are intriguing candidates for cold dark matter in the Universe. We review two well motivated E-WIMPs, an axino and a gravitino, and point out their cosmological and phenomenological…
Cosmological observations and the dynamics of the Milky Way provide ample evidence for an invisible and dominant mass component. This so-called dark matter could be made of new, colour and charge neutral particles, which were…
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…
Progress in observational cosmology over the past five years has established that the Universe is dominated dynamically by dark matter and dark energy. Both these new and apparently independent forms of matter-energy have properties that…
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…