Dark Matter in Modern Cosmology

Abstract

The presence of Dark Matter (DM) is required in the universe regulated by the standard general relativistic theory of gravitation. The nature of DM is however still elusive to any experimental search. We discuss here the process of accumulation of evidence for the presence of DM in the universe, the astrophysical probes for the leading DM scenarios that can be obtained through a multi-frequency analysis of cosmic structures on large scales, and the strategies related to the multi-messenger and multi-experiment astrophysical search for the nature of the DM.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures. Updated version of the review included in ASTROPHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY AFTER GAMOW: Proceedings of the 4th Gamow International Conference on Astrophysics and Cosmology After Gamow and the 9th Gamow Summer School "Astronomy and Beyond: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Radio Astronomy, High Energy Physics and Astrobiology". AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1206, p.