Introduction

The twentieth-century studies evidenced the existence of a new form of matter that has inspired interest in modern physics scenario. It has been named “Dark Matter” (DM), exotic name but with a clear meaning: a component of matter that does not emit luminous radiation. Beginning from study presented by Zwicky in 1933, who analyzed the motion of individual galaxies in the Coma cluster, subsequently other observations have indicated the presence of dark matter from the kinematics of gravitationally bound systems and rotating spiral galaxies, the effects of gravitational lensing of background objects (Zwicky, Helv. Phys. Acta 6:110, 1933), various evidences among which the observation of the Bullet cluster, until recent results from the PLANCK satellite. Furthermore, the dark matter appears to have an important role in the formation of the structures, in the evolution of galaxies, and also has effects on non-uniformity observed cosmological microwave of background radiation. Before going into detailed analyses of each step structuring the dark matter presence and interaction in our Universe, we will first introduce in this chapter the most important evidences, explaining where the dark matter may intervene to resolve the oddities observed before listing the general features of dark matter particles.