Dark Energy and Dark Matter

A brief overview of our current understanding of abundance and properties of dark energy and dark matter is presented. A more focused discussion of supersymmetric dark matter follows. Included is a frequentist approach to the supersymmetric parameter space and consequences for the direct detection of dark matter.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, Summary of talk given at the XXIV International Symposium on Lepton Photon Interactions at High Energies, Hamburg Germany, August 200

The violent Universe: the Big Bang

Four lectures on Big Bang cosmology, including microwave background radiation, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, dark matter, inflation, and baryogenesis.Comment: 47 pages, 19 figures, Set of four lectures given at the 2009 European School of High-Energy Physics, Bautzen, Germany, June 200