Content
About 80% of the matter in the universe cannot be explained in terms of ordinary, baryonic matter. This lecture gives an overview of evidence for this "dark" component, current theoretical ideas to explain its so far obscure nature, as well as strategies to test them.
Prerequisites
The lecture is mainly intended for Master and PhD students but everybody else who is interested is of course also very welcome to join. There are no formal requirements, but some background knowledge in cosmology and quantum field theory/particle physics will be needed to take full advantage of the classes.
Where and when?
- Physics building, seminar room Ø467
- Thursday, 2.15 - 4.00 pm (roughly bi-weekly)
Schedule
NB: This schedule is preliminary and will be adjusted according to progress and demand -- so please check regularly for updates! Dates in italic are on a Friday rather than Thursday.
| 6.2. | introduction, mini-review big bang cosmology +BBN [script | slides] | |
| 21.2. | direct observational evidence "today" [script | slides] | |
| 6.3. | evidence from structure formation [script | slides | movies] | |
| 21.3. | evidence from CMB and summary: properties of dark matter [script | slides | movies 1 2 3] | |
| 10.4. | Cold thermal relics: chemical & kinetic decoupling of WIMPs [script | slides] | |
| 24.4. |
SUSY (and extra-dimensional) WIMP-candidates [script | slides] |
|
| 2.5. | WIMPs (cont.) [script | slides] | |
| 16.5. | Non-WIMP candidates. Indirect DM searches [script | slides] | |
| 12.6. |
Astrophysical probes [script | slides] |
Literature
- cosmology in general:
e.g. S. Weinberg, Cosmology, Oxford university press (2008);
L. Bergström & A. Goobar, Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, Springer (2006). - dark matter:
G. Bertone (Ed.), Particle Dark Matter, Cambridge University Press (2010);
G. Bertone, D. Hooper & J. Silk, Particle dark matter: Evidence, candidates and constraints, Phys.Rept. 405, 279 (2005) [pdf]. - more specific references
will be provided during the corresponding classes (see lecture notes)
