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

There can be little doubt now that 90-99% of the Universe comprises dark matter. Hence it is of critical importance now not just to pursue further evidence for its existence but rather to identify what the dark matter is. Assessment of progress in this area was the objective of the first International Workshop on the Identification of Dark Matter, in particular to consider what techniques, both observational and experimental, are currently being used, how successful they are now and what new techniques will improve the prospects of identifying the likely candidates. The meeting included reviews on major particle astrophysics topics in dark matter but was largely devoted to short contributed talks on new work in the field. This book is the written proceedings of the meeting.

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.