TASI lectures on dark matter models and direct detection

Understand

These lectures provide an introduction to models and direct detection of dark matter.

• We summarize the general features and motivations for candidates in the full dark matter mass range, and then restrict to the keV-TeV mass window.
• Candidates in this window can be produced by thermal mechanisms in the standard cosmology, and are an important target for experimental searches.
• We then turn to sub-GeV dark matter (light dark matter) and dark sectors, an area where many new models and experiments are currently being proposed.