Dark Matter Studies Entrain Nuclear Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews various dark-matter candidates, emphasizing the importance of nuclear physics facilities and cosmological observations in exploring non-WIMP models and expanding the search for dark matter.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of nuclear physics experiments and cosmological data to investigate a broader spectrum of dark-matter candidates beyond traditional WIMPs.

Findings

Nuclear physics facilities can probe non-WIMP dark-matter models.

Cosmological observations constrain dark-matter models at early epochs.

Combined constraints expand the parameter space for dark-matter searches.

Abstract

We review theoretically well-motivated dark-matter candidates, and pathways to their discovery, in the light of recent results from collider physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Taken in aggregate, these encourage broader thinking in regards to possible dark-matter candidates --- dark-matter need not be made of "WIMPs," i.e., elementary particles with weak-scale masses and interactions. Facilities dedicated to nuclear physics are well-poised to investigate certain non-WIMP models. In parallel to this, developments in observational cosmology permit probes of the relativistic energy density at early epochs and thus provide new ways to constrain dark-matter models, provided nuclear physics inputs are sufficiently well-known. The emerging confluence of accelerator, astrophysical, and cosmological constraints permit searches for dark-matter candidates in a greater range of masses and interaction strengths than heretofore possible.