The physical nature of most of the gravitating mass in the universe is completely mysterious. The astrophysical evidence for the presence of this dark matter and astrophysical constraints on its properties will be reviewed. The most popular dark-matter candidates will be introduced, and current and future attempts to search for them directly and indirectly will be discussed.

I review axions, neutralinos, axinos, gravitinos and super-massive Wimpzillas as dark matter candidates.

We show that a mini-thermal inflation occurs naturally in a class of gauge mediation models of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking, provided that the reheating temperature TR of the primary inflation is much higher than the SUSY-breaking scale, say TR > 1010 GeV. The reheating process of the thermal inflation produces an amount of entropy, which dilutes the number density of relic gravitinos. This di...

To enforce the conservation of baryon number B and not lepton number L in supersymmetry, a new U (1) X gauge symmetry is recommended. An example is offered with new particles interacting under U (1) X which are good candidates for the dark matter of the Universe.

Implications of the effects of non-universalities of the soft SUSY breaking parameters on dark matter and on physics at colliders is discussed.

It has long been known that Newtonian dynamics applied to the visible matter in galaxies and clusters does not correctly describe the dynamics of those systems. While this is generally taken as evidence for dark matter it is in principle possible that instead Newtonian dynamics (and with it General Relativity) breaks down in these systems. Indeed there have been a number of proposals as to how ...

Observational evidence indicating that the expansion of the universe is accelerating has surprised cosmologists in recent years. Cosmological models have sought to explain this acceleration by incorporating ‘dark energy’, of which the traditional cosmological constant is just one possible candidate. Several cosmological models involving an evolving equation of state of the dark energy have been...

Supersymmetric particles may constitute the dark matter which permeates the halos of galaxies and is distributed throughout the Universe. In this note we brieey review the most recent calculations of diierent types of detection rates of relic neutralinos and we compare our theoretical evaluations with relevant current experimental results.

It is proposed that dark matter is the origin of neutrino mass, thereby linking inexorably two undisputed (and seemingly unrelated) pieces of evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. Leptogenesis at the TeV scale may also be possible, as well as a measurable contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Talk at NOW2006, Conca Specchiulla, Otranto, Italy.