3.0

Average Course Rating

The overwhelming evidence that dark matter exists and that it is not part of the fundamental theory of matter (the standard model) suggests the need for a graduate course. I will cover what is known and not known about dark matter, being specific enough to open lines of inquiry. I will cover what the rules of quantum field theory would allow it to be and how it could interact with us. I will go over possible mechanisms that explain the generation of dark matter in our universe in the first place. In addition, I will go over the ways to potentially discover (interact with) it directly. The first half or more of the course should be mostly accessible to advanced graduate students in astrophysics and high-energy particle experimentalists. The last half/third will be more field-theory oriented