TASI lectures on dark matter models and direct detection
  These lectures provide an introduction to models and direct detection of dark
matter. We summarize the general features and motivations for candidates in the
full dark matter mass range, and then restrict to the keV-TeV mass window.
Candidates in this window can be produced by thermal mechanisms in the standard
cosmology, and are an important target for experimental searches. We then turn
to sub-GeV dark matter (light dark matter) and dark sectors, an area where many
new models and experiments are currently being proposed. We discuss the
cosmology of dark sectors, specific portal realizations, and some of the
prospects for detection. The final parts of these lectures focus on the theory
for direct detection, both reviewing the fundamentals for nuclear recoils of
WIMPs and describing new directions for sub-GeV candidates. A version of these
lectures was originally presented at the TASI 2018 summer school on "Theory in
an Era of Data".
