DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM | Dark Matter in the Cosmos-- Are We Close to Discovery?

Searching for something that we don’t really understand is very difficult. This is certainly the case with dark matter, a problem that has been around in physics for more than 30 years. After many years of predictions, experimental developments and innovations, we are now at an epoch where we begin to test the hypothesis of dark matter that interacts with gravity and could potentially interact via other forces. I will give an overview of the status of the field and discuss the complementarity of current experimental probes. In addition, I will show that cosmology and the intricate particle physics underlying large scale structure play a key role in any potential interpretation of a dark matter signal.