There is general agreement among astrophysicists that most of the matter in the universe is dark, but a wide divergence of views about what this dark matter is. This volume addresses the problem of detecting and identifying dark matter candidates from axions to black holes. Although theoretical issues are considered, the focus of the book is on observational and experimental techniques, current results and future prospects.
This volume is the latest in a prominent biannual series of scientific meetings on the exciting research topics of dark matter and, more recently, of dark energy. It contains a state-of-the-art update on detection efforts by experimental groups around the world trying to pin down exotic new forms of matter under the names of axions, neutralinos, wimps, primordial black holes, q balls, sterile neutrinos, as well as a tantalizing new form of dark energy component called phantom energy and quintessence. The book is self-contained as it also includes general reviews on recent cosmological observations — supernovae measurements, cosmic matter distribution surveys and cosmic radiation anisotropies — introducing even the uninitiated reader to this fascinating frontier of research.
This book presents the progress in cosmic ray physics following the recent results obtained by balloon, satellite and underground experiments. The following topics are reviewed: Composition and propagation of cosmic rays, trapping of charged particles in the earth's magnetic field, atmospheric neutrinos, and high energy photon measurements in space.
This proceedings volume presents discussions on the technical aspect of the detection of low energy solar neutrinos. Most of the problems related to the experiments aiming to measure low energy solar neutrinos are dealt with.
Dark matter research is one of the most fascinating and active fields among current high-profile scientific endeavours. It holds the key to all major breakthroughs to come in the fields of cosmology and astroparticle physics. The present volume is particularly concerned with the sources and the detection of dark matter and dark energy in the universe and will prove to be an invaluable research tool for all scientists who work in this field.
TheFifthHEIDELBERGInternationalConferenceonDarkMatterinAst- and Particle Physics, DARK 2004, took place at Texas A&M University, College Station Texas, USA, October 3–9, 2004. It was, after Cape Town 2002, the second conference of this series held outside Germany. The earlier meetings, starting in 1996, were held in Heidelberg. Dark Matter is still one of the most exciting and central ?elds of ast- physics, particle physics and cosmology. The conference covered, as usual for this series, a large range of topics, theoretical and experimental. Theoretical talks covered SUSY/SUGRA phenomenology, which provides at present a preferred theoretical framework for the existence of cold dark matter. Also included were other possible explanations of dark matter such as SUSY Q balls, exciting New Symmetries, etc. The most important experiments in the underground search for cold and hot dark matter were presented. Talks describing the current experimental dark matter bounds, what might be obtained in the near future, and the reach of future large (i.e. one ton) detectors were given. The potential of future colliders to correlate accelerator physics with dark matter searches was also outlined. Thus the reader will be able to see the present status and future prospects in the search for dark matter. The exciting astronomical evidence for dark matter and corresponding observations concerning the Milky Way’s black hole, high-redshift clusters, wakes in dark matter halos were other important topics at the conference.
This book reviews the interconnection of cosmology and particle physics over the last decade. It provides introductory courses in supersymmetry, superstring and M-theory, responding to an increasing interest to evaluate the cosmological consequences of these theories. Based on a series of extended courses providing an introduction to the physics of the very early universe, in the light of the most recent advances in our understanding of the fundamental interactions, it reviews all the classical issues (inflation, primordial fluctuations, dark matter, baryogenesis), but also introduces the most recent ideas about what happened at the Big Bang, and before.
Dark matter in the Universe has become one of the most exciting and central fields of astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. The lectures and talks in this book emphasize the experimental and theoretical status and perspectives of the ongoing search for dark matter, and the future potential of the field into the next millennium, stressing in particular the interplay between astro- and particle physics.
Neutrinos play a key role in many areas of particle physics, nuclear physics and astrophysics. The recent discovery of neutrino oscillation has given the first hint of new physics beyond the standard model. Clearly, it is extremely important to study further the oscillation and other fundamental properties of neutrinos. It is also important to improve our knowledge of neutrino-nucleus reactions, which are crucial for understanding a large class of astrophysical phenomena. These and many other interesting questions can be investigated at stopped pion neutrino facilities like the one planned for the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The purpose of the Carolina Symposium was twofold: (1) to explore and exchange ideas on the latest developments in general frontiers of neutrino physics and related fields; (2) to address specific issues pertaining to the above-mentioned stopped pion neutrino facility. Among the topics covered in the proceedings are: cosmology and neutrino; standard model tests with neutrinos; neutrino oscillation, experiments and theories; dark matter search; double beta-decay; rare events detection techniques; the solar neutrino problem; supernova explosion; nucleosynthesis; and the ORLaND project.
The objective of the workshop series “The Identification of Dark Matter” is to assess critically the status of work attempting to identify what constitutes dark matter; in particular, to consider what techniques are currently being used, how successful they are, and what new techniques are likely to improve the prospects for identifying dark matter candidates in the future. This proceedings volume includes reviews on major particle astrophysics topics in the field of dark matter, as well as short contributed papers.
