Deciphering the script for the Big Bang has now become a joint effort of particle physicists and cosmologists. The origin and first moments of the early Universe were determined by the same fundamental processes which are studied in terrestrial accelerators and whose traces from the early Universe can be seen in astrophysical observations. It is now almost universally accepted that most of the debris left over from the Big Bang is likely to be in the form of particle dark matter. Identifying its nature and measuring its abundance in the Universe have become major goals of theorists and experimentalists alike. This volume reviews the progress made at the frontiers of research in these rapidly expanding fields. A broad range of topics, from inflation to primordial black holes to physics at the Planck era, and to dark matter and neutrinos — both reviews and reports on the most recent advances — is presented by leaders in the field.

Setting the stage -- Neutrinos and neutralinos/WIMPS -- Other particle relics -- Inflation, reheating and preheating -- Defects and phase transitions -- Finite temperature effects -- Black holes -- Quantum and string cosmology

This volume presents the newest results and developments in the fast-moving field of astroparticle physics. The following topics are covered: dark matter, baryogenesis, neutrino physics and astrophysics, inflation, topological defects, cosmic ray physics and cosmological implications of grand unification, supersymmetry, superstrings and extra dimensions.

Dark matter research is one of the most fascinating and active fields among current high-profile scientific endeavours. It holds the key to all major breakthroughs to come in the fields of cosmology and astroparticle physics. The present volume is particularly concerned with the sources and the detection of dark matter and dark energy in the universe and will prove to be an invaluable research tool for all scientists who work in this field.

This book presents reviews and new findings in the field of the very early universe, where the interests of particle theorists and astrophysicists meet. Also, WIMP search experiments are reported.