The Dark Matter Discoverer’s Guidebook

Exploring WIMPs, Axion-Like Particles, and the Dark Sector

Impressive in its broad approach to the methods for identifying dark matter, The Dark Matter Discoverer’s Guidebook contains theoretical, phenomenological, and experimental approaches created to prepare dark-matter hunters for discovery. It provides an introduction to key evidence for dark matter, explores theories and models that provide possible candidates, and surveys experimental approaches having the goal of training people to test the widest possible range of ideas.

The Dark Matter Discoverer’s Guidebook is perfect for upper-level undergraduate students, graduate students, or a professional seeking to pivot into this exciting field of discovery. Mathematical derivations, examples, and complete solutions enable learners to test their understanding of the material and assess their level of knowledge without wasting time wondering whether there are missing steps.

Dark matter is one of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos; get ready to make discoveries that will define this century.

The Authors:
Jodi Cooley is Executive Director of SNOLAB, the deepest and the cleanest underground science laboratory in the world, hosting leading experiments in astroparticle physics (1-1/4 miles beneath the surface). A professor of physics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Dr. Cooley has hunted for dark matter since 2004 when she joined the CDMS-II experiment, serving in leadership roles in that program for over a decade. She is an elected fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, and is a recipient of the American Association of Physics Teachers’ Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award, given to recognize “… outstanding communication of the excitement of contemporary physics to the general public.”

Stephen Sekula is the Research Group Manager at SNOLAB and a professor of physics at Queen’s University. He has experience in particle collider and astroparticle physics. Before joining SNOLAB, he participated in the observation of two previously undiscovered fundamental states of matter—the ground state of the bottom quark system (2008) and the Higgs particle (2012–2022). He is a recipient of the Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest level of teaching recognition proffered by his former institution, Southern Methodist University. He is the author or co-author of numerous other books on physics, including Reality in the Shadows (or) What the Heck’s the Higgs? with Frank Blitzer and S. James (Jim) Gates Jr., and The Friendly Physics Guide to Nuclear and Particle Physics in Medicine.