Related papers: The Faintest Dwarf Galaxies
Among the most stringent constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section are those derived from observations of dwarf galaxies by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. As current (e.g., Dark Energy Survey, DES) and future (Large…
Recent results from numerical simulations and models of galaxy formation suggest that recently discovered ultra-faint compact stellar systems (UFCSs) in the halo of the Milky Way (MW) may be some of the smallest and faintest galaxies. If…
Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the tiniest observed galaxies and are currently associated with the largest fractions of dark matter, which is revealed by their too large velocity dispersions. However, most of them are found near…
Ultrafaint dwarf galaxies ($M_\star\lesssim10^{5-6}\,{\rm M}_\odot$) are relics of an early phase of galaxy formation. They contain some of the oldest and most metal-poor stars in the Universe which likely formed before the epoch of…
The abundance of the faintest galaxies provides insight into the nature of dark matter and the process of dwarf galaxy formation. In the LCDM scenario, low mass halos are so numerous that the efficiency of dwarf formation must decline…
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the most dark matter dominated systems in the nearby Universe and their origin is one of the outstanding puzzles of how galaxies form. Dwarf spheroidals are poor in gas and stars, making them unusually faint,…
We present a new formalism designed to discover dark matter annihilation occurring in the Milky Way's dwarf galaxies. The statistical framework extracts all available information in the data by simultaneously combining observations of all…
Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, which can be detected as resolved satellite systems of the Milky Way, are critical to understanding galaxy formation, evolution, and the nature of dark matter, as they are the oldest, smallest, most metal-poor,…
The Milky Way ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) contain some of the oldest, most metal-poor stars in the Universe. We present [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [Ti/Fe], and mean [alpha/Fe], abundance ratios for 61 individual red giant branch stars…
We use kinematic data from three new, nearby, extremely low-luminosity Milky Way dwarf galaxies (Ursa Major II, Willman 1, and Coma Berenices) to constrain the properties of their dark matter halos, and from these make predictions for the…
White dwarfs are among the most common objects in the stellar halo; however, due to their low luminosity and low number density compared to the stars in the discs of the Milky Way, they are scarce in the observable volume. Hence, they are…
The existence of ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies highlights the need to push our theoretical understanding of galaxies to extremely low mass. We examine the formation of UFDs by twice running a fully cosmological simulations of dwarf…
We present a new method for generating initial conditions for LCDM N-body simulations which provides the dynamical range necessary to follow the evolution and distribution of the fossils of the first galaxies on Local Volume, 5-10 Mpc,…
Analyses of their internal stellar kinematics imply that the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) companion galaxies to the Milky Way are among the most dark-matter dominated systems known. Should there be significant dark matter in the form of faint…
We demonstrate how the least luminous galaxies in the Universe, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, are sensitive to their dynamical mass at the time of cosmic reionization. We select a low-mass ($\sim \text{1.5} \times 10^{9} \, \text{M}_{\odot}$)…
Low luminosity dwarf galaxies provide stringent constraints on the nature of dark matter. Establishing these constraints depends on precise kinematic measurements of individual stars. In this overview for non-specialists, we describe…
Observational bias against finding Milky Way (MW) dwarf galaxies at low Galactic latitudes (b < 20 deg) and at low surface brightnesses (fainter than 29 mag arcsec^-2, in the V-band) currently limits our understanding of the faintest limits…
The Milky Way satellite dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are the smallest dark matter dominated systems in the universe. We have underway dynamical studies of the dSph to quantify the shortest scale lengths on which Dark Matter is…
In this paper the counts and colors of the faint galaxies observed in the Hubble Deep Field are fitted by means of simple luminosity evolution models which incorporate a numerous population of fading dwarfs. The observed color distribution…
Early-type dwarfs (ETDs) are the end points of the evolution of low-mass galaxies whose gas supply has been extinguished. The cessation of star-formation lays bare the ancient stellar populations. A wealth of information is stored in the…