Dark matter in the Milky Way

The current state of the search for dark matter in the Milky Way is reviewed starting with the current state of rotation curve studies. From the dynamical evidence, there continues to be strong evidence for a flat rotation curve to at least 2.5 Ro, and the various studies seem to be in reasonably good agreement. Other dynamical evidence for Galactic dark matter does not appear to be particularly compelling. The many searches for brown dwarfs and very low mass stars are now at a level where it appears reasonable to conclude that these objects are probably not responsible for the flat rotation curve of the Milky Way. Another baryonic candidate, very cold H2 clouds, also do not appear to be able to explain the flat rotation curves. Although the dynamical evidence for dark matter in the Milky Way appears to be as strong as that for other Galaxies, we appear to be a little closer to identifying what the dark matter actually is than we were ten years ago.