An Introduction to Particle Dark Matter

Abstract

We review the features of Dark Matter as a particle, presenting some old and new instructive models, and looking for their physical implications in the early universe and in the process of structure formation. We also present a schematic of Dark Matter searches and introduce the most promising candidates to the role of Dark Matter particle.

49 pages. This article is based on a mini-course of 5 lectures delivered by S. Profumo at the Third José Plínio Baptista School on Cosmology (September 2016). See http://www.cosmo-ufes.org/jpbcosmo3.html