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Dark matter constraints from small scale structure

Date and Time: Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 03:30pm - 04:30pm
Location: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/97747524523?pwd=ei9yOGh1WWg4VVJWcDVDVTdJVjNKdz09
 

Speaker: Risa Wechsler, Stanford University 

Abstract: The Universe is teeming with tiny galaxies, the smallest of which can be up to a hundred million times less massive in stars than our own Milky Way.  The last few years have seen a revolution in the discovery and characterization of these systems, including the discovery of many dozens of new ultrafaint galaxies in the Milky Way system and the characterization of Milky Way-like systems and their satellites well outside the Local Group.  These faint galaxies trace the smallest observationally accessible dark matter halos, and can thus provide clues to the nature of dark matter as well as to the onset of galaxy formation.  I will discuss new observational results on satellite galaxies within the Milky Way and similar systems and describe what we have learned about the dark matter halos that host the smallest galaxies.  I will show how these measurements help place our own Galaxy in its broader cosmological context, and how they and other probes of small-scale structure can provide powerful constraints on the microphysical properties of the dark matter that dominates our Universe.

Host: Chuck Keeton

Extra Info: Meeting ID: 977 4752 4523
Password: 817908