Review of Observational Evidence for Dark Matter in the Universe and in upcoming searches for Dark Stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews observational evidence for dark matter across various cosmic phenomena and explores the novel concept of Dark Stars powered by dark matter heating, discussing potential observational detection methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of dark matter evidence and introduces the innovative idea of Dark Stars as a new avenue for dark matter detection.

Findings

Strong evidence for dark matter from galaxy rotation curves

Dark Stars could be observable through specific signatures

Dark matter heating may have influenced early star formation

Abstract

Over the past decade, a consensus picture has emerged in which roughly a quarter of the universe consists of dark matter. The observational evidence for the existence of dark matter is reviewed: rotation curves of galaxies, weak lensing measurements, hot gas in clusters, primordial nucleosynthesis and microwave background experiments. In addition, a new line of research on Dark Stars is presented, which suggests that the first stars to exist in the universe were powered by dark matter heating rather than by fusion: the observational possibilities of discovering dark matter in this way are discussed.