Dark matter constituents

As cosmology has entered a phase of precision experiments, the content of the universe has been established to contain interesting and not yet fully understood components, namely dark energy and dark matter. While the cause and exact nature of the dark energy remains mysterious, there is greater hope to connect the dark matter to current models of particle physics. Supersymmetric models provide several excellent candidates for dark matter, with the lightest neutralino as the prime example. This and other dark matter candidates are discussed, and prospects for their detection are summarized. Some methods of detection are explained, and indications of signals in present data are critically examined.