Cosmology and Dark Matter

Understand

Cosmology and astroparticle physics give strongest possible evidence for the incompleteness of the Standard Model of particle physics.

• Leaving aside misterious dark energy, which may or may not be just the cosmological constant, two properties of the Universe cannot be explained by the Standard Model: dark matter and matter-antimatter asymmtery.
• Dark matter particles may well be discovered in foreseeable future; this issue is under intense experimental investigation.
• Theoretical hypotheses on the nature of the dark matter particles are numerous, so we concentrate on several well motivated candidates, such as WIMPs, axions and sterile neutrinos, and also give examples of less motivated and more elusive candidates such as fuzzy dark matter.