In Search of Dark Matter

Techniques for detecting dark matter in the laboratory are proposed. The techniques are based on the assumption that dark matter consists of a haze of elementary particles remaining from the Big Bang. It is predicted that dark matter is composed of light particles (0.00005-0.02 eV), such as axions, and weakly interacting, massive particles (1 GeV-1 TeV). The development of axion detectors containing microwave cavities of varying volumes, and different scanning ranges is discussed. Various devices for detecting massive particles, such as recoil techniques, the silicon bolometric detector, the ballistic phonon approach, and the superheated superconducting colloid detector, are described; the potential capabilities of these devices are examined.