Living in the Dark: A Brief Introduction to the Search for Dark Matter

Synopsis

The scale of universe is truly unimaginable. From what can be observed, there is an astonishing estimated 10 to the 20 stars out there in space. In a naïve picture, the void between these stars is filled with photons, neutrinos, and other standard model particles whizzing around. While it is true that there is an abundance of these particles flying around in outer space, astronomical observations throughout the 20th century uncovered that familiar standard model particles might only make up a minuscule 5% of the universe. A more significant portion, about 27% of the universe, is made up of what was named dark matter, which seems to be responsible for the galactic structures that exist in our universe. Apart from its significance in galaxy structure, what makes dark matter so fascinating is the fact that it interacts very weakly, if at all, with regular matter outside of the gravitational force. This talk will discuss the observations behind the origin of dark matter as well as leading theories in dark matter candidates and the current state of dark matter detection experiments.