Related papers: Are the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies Just Cusps?
M dwarfs have been found to often have super-Earth planets with short orbital periods. Such stars are thus preferential targets in searches for rocky or ocean planets in the solar neighbourhood. In a recent paper (Bonfils et al. 2011), we…
A wealth of observations have long suggested that the vast majority of isolated classical dwarf galaxies ($M_*=10^7$-$10^9$ M$_\odot$) are currently star-forming. However, recent observations of the large abundance of "Ultra-Diffuse…
An origin is sought for the ubiquity of cusps, both in computer simulations of halo formation in hierarchical clustering cosmogonies and in observations of galactic nuclei by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The encounters of merging…
In this proceeding, we present the results of a semi-analytic study of CDM substructure as a function of the primordial power spectrum. We apply our method to several tilted models in the LCDM framework with n=0.85-1.1, sigma_8=0.65-1.2…
Ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) have similar properties as massive globular clusters or the nuclei of nucleated galaxies. Recent observations suggesting a high dark matter content and a steep spatial distribution within groups and…
We present predictions for the surface density of ultracool dwarfs (with spectral types M8-T8) for a host of deep fields that are likely to be observed with the James Webb Space Telescope. Based on simple thin and thick/thin disk…
We show that dissipationless LCDM simulations predict that the majority of the most massive subhaloes of the Milky Way are too dense to host any of its bright satellites (L_V > 10^5 L_sun). These dark subhaloes have circular velocities at…
There had been recent advancement toward the detection of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, which may serve as a useful laboratory for dark matter exploration since some of them contains almost 99$\%$ of pure dark matter. The majority of these…
We study the prospects for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to find new dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Milky Way. Adopting models of Milky-Way halo substructure and phenomenological prescriptions connecting subhalos and…
Recent observations suggest that Carina and other nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies are surrounded by unbound stars tidally stripped by the Milky Way. We run high-resolution N-Body simulations of dwarf galaxies orbiting within the Milky Way…
The satellite populations of Milky Way--mass systems have been extensively studied, significantly advancing our understanding of galaxy formation and dark matter physics. In contrast, the satellites of lower-mass dwarf galaxies remain…
We run controlled N-body experiments to study the evolution of the dark matter (DM) halo profiles of dwarf galaxies driven by the accretion of DM substructures. Our initial conditions assume that supernova feedback erases the primordial DM…
Two populations of dwarf galaxies can be associated with the Milky Way (MW): the disrupted dwarfs that fully merged with it in the past and the surviving satellites that orbit around it in the present time. In this work, we analyzed the…
We report the results of a systematic photometric survey of the peripheral regions of a sample of fourteen globular clusters in the outer halo of the Milky Way at distances d_GC>25 kpc from the Galactic centre. The survey is aimed at…
We use a particle tagging technique to dynamically populate the N-body Via Lactea II high-resolution simulation with stars. The method is calibrated using the observed luminosity function of Milky Way satellites and the concentration of…
Dwarf galaxies are valuable laboratories for dynamical studies related to dark matter and galaxy evolution, yet it is currently unknown just how physically extended their stellar components are. Satellites orbiting the Galaxy's potential…
The formation mechanism of high-concentration dwarf galaxies is still a mystery. We perform a comparative study of the intrinsic shape of nearby low-mass galaxies with different stellar concentration. The intrinsic shape is parameterized by…
Searching for extrasolar planets around stars of different metallicity may provide strong constraints to the models of planet formation and evolution. In this paper we present the overall results of a HARPS (a high-precision spectrograph…
We present a novel approach to constrain the formation channels of Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies (UCDs). This inhomogeneous class of objects of remnants of tidally stripped dwarf elliptical galaxies and high mass globular clusters. We use…
Lensing flux-ratio anomalies have been frequently observed and taken as evidence for the presence of abundant dark matter substructures in lensing galaxies, as predicted by the cold dark matter (CDM) model of cosmogony. In previous work, we…