The Theory of Direct Dark Matter Detection

This book is a pedagogical guide on how to make computations in direct dark matter (DM)detection. The theory behind the calculation of direct detection cross sections and rates is presented, touching aspects related toelementary particle physics, hadronic physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. The book is structured in self-contained sections, covering several topics ranging from the scattering kinematics to thephenomenology of direct DM searches. It follows amodel-independent approach, aiming at providing the readers with all that is needed tounderstand the theory and start their own analysis. Meant for graduate students and researchers with interests inparticle physics and phenomenology,it is enriched with several worked examples from standard and non-standard particle DM models. Senior researchers working in different areas related todark matter, like particle and nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, find in this book auseful and updated guide for reference.