TASI lectures on dark matter models and direct detection

TL;DR

This paper provides an overview of dark matter models across a wide mass range, focusing on detection methods, recent developments in light dark matter and dark sectors, and theoretical foundations for direct detection experiments.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive review of dark matter candidates, their production mechanisms, and detection strategies, including new models and experimental prospects for sub-GeV dark matter.

Findings

Summarizes dark matter candidates across the full mass spectrum.

Discusses thermal production mechanisms for keV-TeV dark matter.

Reviews detection techniques for nuclear recoils and new approaches for light dark matter.

Abstract

These lectures provide an introduction to models and direct detection of dark matter. We summarize the general features and motivations for candidates in the full dark matter mass range, and then restrict to the keV-TeV mass window. Candidates in this window can be produced by thermal mechanisms in the standard cosmology, and are an important target for experimental searches. We then turn to sub-GeV dark matter (light dark matter) and dark sectors, an area where many new models and experiments are currently being proposed. We discuss the cosmology of dark sectors, specific portal realizations, and some of the prospects for detection. The final parts of these lectures focus on the theory for direct detection, both reviewing the fundamentals for nuclear recoils of WIMPs and describing new directions for sub-GeV candidates. A version of these lectures was originally presented at the TASI 2018 summer school on "Theory in an Era of Data".