WIMP dark matter candidates and searches - current status and future prospects

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current experimental and theoretical landscape of WIMP dark matter, focusing on detection efforts, candidate particles like the neutralino, and alternative scenarios affecting detection prospects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental bounds, potential signals, and the status of various WIMP candidates, especially the neutralino, along with alternative dark matter models.

Findings

Current experimental bounds and hints of signals across multiple detection methods.

The neutralino remains the most promising WIMP candidate with strong detection prospects.

Alternative dark matter scenarios could significantly change detection expectations.

Abstract

We review several current aspects of dark matter theory and experiment. We overview the present experimental status, which includes current bounds and recent claims and hints of a possible signal in a wide range of experiments: direct detection in underground laboratories, gamma-ray, cosmic ray, X-ray, neutrino telescopes, and the LHC. We briefly review several possible particle candidates for a Weakly Interactive Massive Particle (WIMP) and dark matter that have recently been considered in the literature. We pay particular attention to the lightest neutralino of supersymmetry as it remains the best motivated candidate for dark matter and also shows excellent detection prospects. Finally we briefly review some alternative scenarios that can considerably alter properties and prospects for the detection of dark matter obtained within the standard thermal WIMP paradigm.