Dark Matter - Theory and Detection

3 Credits.

The identification of the nature of dark matter is one of the most important problems confronting particle physics. Current observational constraints permit the mass of the dark matter to range from ~10-22~10-22 eV - 10481048 GeV. Given the weak nature of these bounds and the ease with which dark matter models can be constructed, it is clear that the problem can only be solved experimentally. In these lectures, I discuss a wide range of dark matter candidates such weakly interacting massive particles, axions and ultra-heavy dark matter objects. The lectures will cover theoretical motivations for these dark matter candidates, observational constraints on these candidates and the technologies necessary to probe them.