Dark Matter, June 15 - June 19

This course is part of the 2026 Undergraduate Summer School curriculum. This four-lecture course traces dark matter from the evidence that it must exist (Bullet Cluster, CMB, galactic rotation curves) through the two leading models — heavy thermal relics protected by a symmetry (WIMPs) and ultralight bosons produced non-thermally (axions). The final lecture turns to detection, and discusses how to build a dark matter experiment.