Related papers: The Milky Way system in LCDM cosmological simulati…
The predicted abundance and properties of the low-mass substructures embedded inside larger dark matter haloes differ sharply among alternative dark matter models. Too small to host galaxies themselves, these subhaloes may still be detected…
Our 'home galaxy' - the Milky Way - is a fairly large spiral galaxy, prototype of the most common morphological class in the local Universe. Although being only a galaxy, it is the only one that can be studied in unique detail: for the…
We introduce a new methodology to robustly determine the mass profile, as well as the overall distribution, of Local Group satellite galaxies. Specifically we employ a statistical multilevel modelling technique, Bayesian hierarchical…
We use \texttt{GRUMPY}, a simple regulator-type model for dwarf galaxy formation and evolution, to forward model the dwarf galaxy satellite population of the Milky Way (MW) using the Caterpillar zoom-in simulation suite. We show that…
We quantify the detectability of stellar Milky Way satellites in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 5. We show that the effective search volumes for the recently discovered SDSS--satellites depend strongly on their luminosity,…
We estimate the mass of the inner ($<20$ kpc) Milky Way and the axis ratio of its dark matter halo using globular clusters as tracers. At the same time, we constrain the phase-space distribution of the globular cluster system. We use the…
We use the first 100 sq. deg. of overlap between the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to determine the galaxy halo mass of ~10,000 spectroscopically-confirmed satellite galaxies in massive ($M >…
A parameterized model of the mass distribution within the Milky Way is fitted to the available observational constraints. The most important single parameter is the ratio of the scale length R_d* of the stellar disk to R0. The disk and…
We use the publicly available subhalo catalogs from the Via Lactea simulation along with a Gpc-scale N-body simulation to understand the impact of inhomogeneous reionization on the satellite galaxy population of the Milky Way. The…
We present a new measurement of the mass of the Milky Way (MW) based on observed properties of its largest satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds (MCs), and an assumed prior of a {\Lambda}CDM universe. The large, high-resolution Bolshoi…
We investigate the properties of dark matter haloes and subhaloes in an $f(R)$ gravity model with $|f_{R0}|=10^{-6}$, using a very high-resolution N-body simulation. The model is a borderline between being cosmologically interesting and yet…
We analyse systems analogous to the Milky Way (MW) in the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamics simulation in order to deduce the likely structure of the MW's dark matter halo. We identify MW-mass haloes in the simulation whose satellite…
Recent measurements suggest that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) may weigh as much as 25\% of the Milky Way. In this work we explore how such a large satellite affects mass estimates of the Milky Way based on equilibrium modelling of the…
We construct a model for the Milky Way Galaxy composed of a stellar disc and bulge embedded in a dark-matter halo. All components are modelled as $N$-body systems with up to 8 billion equal-mass particles and integrated up to an age of…
We describe our recent attempts to model substructure in dark matter halos down to very small masses, using a semi-analytic model of halo formation. The results suggest that numerical simulations of halo formation may still be missing…
We introduce a new maximum likelihood method to model the density profile of Blue Horizontal Branch and Blue Straggler stars and apply it to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8 (DR8) photometric catalogue. There are a large number…
The population of Milky Way (MW) satellites contains the faintest known galaxies and thus provides essential insight into galaxy formation and dark matter microphysics. Here we combine a model of the galaxy--halo connection with newly…
We present distributions of orbital parameters of infalling satellites of $\Lambda$CDM haloes in the mass range $10^{12}-10^{14}$M$_\odot$, which represent the initial conditions for the subsequent evolution of substructures within the host…
We use numerical simulations to examine the substructure within galactic and cluster mass halos that form within a hierarchical universe. Clusters are easily reproduced with a steep mass spectrum of thousands of substructure clumps that…
The Milky Way's (MW) satellite population is a powerful probe of warm dark matter (WDM) models as the abundance of small substructures is very sensitive to the properties of the WDM particle. However, only a partial census of the MW's…