Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Observational Facilities to Study Dark Matter

Understand

We present an overview of future observational facilities that will significantly enhance our understanding of the fundamental nature of dark matter.

• These facilities span a range of observational techniques including optical/near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, measurements of the cosmic microwave background, pulsar timing, 21-cm observations of neutral hydrogen at high redshift, and the measurement of gravitational waves.
• Such facilities are a critical component of a multi-pronged experimental program to uncover the nature of dark matter, while often providing complementary measurements of dark energy, neutrino physics, and inflation.