Related papers: On the persistence of two small-scale problems in …
It has been suggested that the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way reside in a highly-flattened, kinematically-coherent plane called Disk of Satellites (DoS). The origin of the DoS, however, has been hotly debated, and a number of…
Different methodologies lead to order-of-magnitude variations in predicted galaxy merger rates. We examine and quantify the dominant uncertainties. Different halo merger rates and subhalo 'destruction' rates agree to within a factor ~2…
The Missing Satellites Problem (MSP) broadly refers to the overabundance of predicted Cold Dark Matter (CDM) subhalos compared to satellite galaxies known to exist in the Local Group. The most popular interpretation of the MSP is that the…
We investigate a mechanism to form and keep a planar spatial distribution of satellite galaxies in the Milky Way (MW), which is called the satellite plane. It has been pointed out that the {\Lambda}CDM cosmological model hardly explains the…
One of the primary sources of uncertainties in modeling the cosmic-shear power spectrum on small scales is the effect of baryonic physics. Accurate cosmology for Stage-IV surveys requires knowledge of the matter power spectrum deep in the…
We use the \texttt{GRUMPY} galaxy formation model based on a suite of zoom-in, high-resolution, dissipationless $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) simulations of the Milky Way (MW) sized haloes to examine total matter density within…
We investigate the properties of a galaxy similar to the Milky Way within the context of standard disk formation theory in a LCDM universe. Using the standard assumption that baryons conserve specific angular momentum when they collapse, we…
Increasingly large parameter spaces, used to more accurately model precision observables in physics, can paradoxically lead to large deviations in the inferred parameters of interest -- a bias known as volume projection effects -- when…
A clear prediction of the Cold Dark Matter model is the existence of cuspy dark matter halo density profiles on all mass scales. This is not in agreement with the observed rotation curves of spiral galaxies, challenging on small scales the…
We use the distribution of maximum circular velocities, $V_{max}$, of satellites in the Milky Way (MW) to constrain the virial mass, $M_{200}$, of the Galactic halo under an assumed prior of a $\Lambda$CDM universe. This is done by…
We study the statistics of various large-scale structure tracers in gravity-only cosmological simulations including baryons and cold dark matter (CDM) initialized with two different transfer functions, and simulated as two distinct fluids.…
We note that the standard LCDM cosmological model continues to face fundamental problems. First, the model continues to depend wholly on two pieces of undiscovered physics, namely dark energy and cold dark matter. Then, the implied dark…
On small scales there have been a number of claims of discrepancies between the standard Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model and observations. The 'missing satellites problem' infamously describes the overabundance of subhalos from CDM simulations…
In this thesis, the implications of a new cosmological model are studied, which has features similar to that of decaying vacuum cosmologies. Decaying vacuum (or cosmological constant \Lambda) models are the results of attempts to resolve…
We present a study of satellites in orbit around a high-resolution, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) galaxy simulated in a cosmological context. The simulated galaxy is approximately the same mass as the Milky Way. The cumulative…
The spatial distribution of satellite galaxies around pairs of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have been found to bulge significantly towards the respective partner. Highly anisotropic, planar distributions of satellite…
We use measurements from the Planck satellite mission and galaxy redshift surveys over the last decade to test three of the basic assumptions of the standard model of cosmology, $\Lambda$CDM: the spatial curvature of the universe, the…
We constrain cosmological parameters using combined measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the correlation function of galaxies and Ly-\alpha absorbers that together cover 0.1 < z < 2.4. The BAO position…
The standard big bang cosmology has been greatly successful in explaining many observational aspects of the real universe. However, two particular diffficulties faced by it are the so-called ``horizon'' and ``flatness'' problems. By…
Satellite kinematics offers a powerful method to infer dynamical halo masses and has been demonstrated to yield tight constraints on the galaxy-halo connection. However, previous studies have assumed that the halos in which the satellites…