Dark Matter and Particle Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evidence for dark matter, discusses the potential for detecting dark matter particles at the CERN LHC, and explores methods to confirm their cosmic origin.

Contribution

It provides a summary of dark matter evidence and proposes experimental strategies for identifying and characterizing dark matter particles at collider experiments.

Findings

Dark matter constitutes 80% of the universe's matter.

Dark matter particles may be produced at the CERN LHC.

Methods to confirm cosmic dark matter particles are discussed.

Abstract

[A brief review intended for a general physics colloquium audience.] Astrophysicists now know that 80% of the matter in the universe is `dark matter', composed of neutral and weakly interacting elementary particles that are not part of the Standard Model of particle physics. I will summarize the evidence for dark matter. I will explain why I expect dark matter particles to be produced at the CERN LHC. We will then need to characterize the new weakly interacting particles and demonstrate that they are the same particles that are found in the cosmos. I will describe how this might be done.