This is a book review of What is Dark Matter? by Peter Fisher.
What is Dark Matter?, by Peter Fisher (Princeton University Press), 2022. Pp. 189, 21 x 13.5 cm. Price £28/$35 (hardbound, ISBN 978 0 691 14834 2).
The book opens with some very general physics background before discussing astronomical evidence for dark matter; it then introduces the standard model of particle physics followed by a discussion of what dark matter is not (i.e. candidates which have been ruled out). That sets the stage for the discussion of particle dark matter such as WIMPs and axions and its direct detection in the lab, observing its decay by various astronomical means, and, to a lesser extent, detecting dark-matter particles produced in accelerators. I found several things disturbing or at least annoying. Most of the mistakes involve astronomy, astrophysics, or cosmology, presumably reflecting the fact that the author is a particle physicist (though that shouldn't be an excuse). In all chapters, though, there are things which are confusingly formulated, and goofs such as mentioning the colour of a curve in a black-and-white diagram. Proper editing would have corrected such oversights, but in many respects the author seems to be genuinely confused. Although not a bad book on the whole, there are too many annoying things which could have been easily fixed by good editing and proof reading by someone familiar with astronomy and cosmology: simple mistakes, matters of style, suggestions for further reading which are good but not relevant to the subject, a too strong emphasis (especially for an introductory book) on particle dark matter.