ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 96 03 02 6 v 1 6 M ar 1 99 6 Particle Dark Matter

Several lines of evidence suggest that some of the dark matter may be nonbaryonic: the non-detection of various plausible baryonic candidates for dark matter inferred, e.g., from galaxy rotation curves and from cluster of galaxy velocity dispersions, the need for non-baryonic dark matter for theoretical models of galaxy formation, and the large discrepancy between dynamical measurements implying Ω0 > 0.2 and the baryon abundance inferred from big bang nucleosynthesis, Ωbh 2 = 0.015. There are a number of well-motivated dark matter candidates: massive neutrinos, supersymmetric dark matter and “invisible” axions. Many of these dark matter candidates are potentially detectable by the current generation of dark matter experiments.