This book is a new look at one of the hottest topics in contemporary science, Dark Matter. It is the pioneering text dedicated to sterile neutrinos as candidate particles for Dark Matter, challenging some of the standard assumptions which may be true for some Dark Matter candidates but not for all. So, this can be seen either as an introduction to a specialized topic or an out-of-the-box introduction to the field of Dark Matter in general. No matter if you are a theoretical particle physicist, an observational astronomer, or a ground-based experimentalist, no matter if you are a grad student or an active researcher, you can benefit from this text, for a simple reason: a non-standard candidate for Dark Matter can teach you a lot about what we truly know about our standard picture of how the Universe works.

Alexander Merle, Max Planck Institut fur Physik
Alexandre Merle obtained his Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in 2009. He is currently in a Senior Postdoc position at the Max Planck Institute for Physics. His main research is theoretical elementary particle physics and cosmology, with a particular focus on neutrinos, Dark Matter, and their interconnections. He has written more than 60 papers on various topics; is an active contributor to the field of keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter, having discovered the production mechanism (FIMP scalar decay) that is currently in best agreement with data.

Table of Contents
Introduction: Dark Matter - what we do and do not know
Sterile neutrinos - almost part of the Standard Model
Dark Matter - fossils from the early Universe
A very big small effect - production by active-sterile mixing
Resurrection from the downfall - production by particle decays
The emergence of order - cosmic structure formation
Consult the stars for an answer - astrophysical signals
The needle in the dark haystack - experimental attempts
What to take home - conclusions and outlook