Indirect and direct search for dark matter

TL;DR

This review summarizes the current status of dark matter searches through direct detection, indirect cosmic signals, and collider experiments, highlighting their complementarity in uncovering dark matter properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of experimental efforts and constraints in dark matter detection, emphasizing the synergy between different detection methods.

Findings

Strong constraints from underground experiments on dark matter particle properties.

Hints of possible signals in some direct detection experiments.

Complementary roles of cosmic-ray, gamma-ray, neutrino, and collider searches.

Abstract

The majority of the matter in the universe is still unidentified and under investigation by both direct and indirect means. Many experiments searching for the recoil of dark-matter particles off target nuclei in underground laboratories have established increasingly strong constraints on the mass and scattering cross sections of weakly interacting particles, and some have even seen hints at a possible signal. Other experiments search for a possible mixing of photons with light scalar or pseudo-scalar particles that could also constitute dark matter. Furthermore, annihilation or decay of dark matter can contribute to charged cosmic rays, photons at all energies, and neutrinos. Many existing and future ground-based and satellite experiments are sensitive to such signals. Finally, data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are scrutinized for missing energy as a signature of new weakly interacting particles that may be related to dark matter. In this review article we summarize the status of the field with an emphasis on the complementarity between direct detection in dedicated laboratory experiments, indirect detection in the cosmic radiation, and searches at particle accelerators.