Related papers: Stellar dynamics and dark matter in Local Group dw…
White dwarfs and neutron stars are stellar objects with masses comparable to that of our sun. However, as the endpoint stages of stellar evolution, these objects do not sustain any thermonuclear burning and therefore can no longer support…
Dwarf galaxies have a wide variety of structures, such as dark matter (DM) distribution, stellar-to-halo mass ratio, and stellar density. Recent high-resolution simulations have shown a variety of stellar-to-halo mass ratios for dwarf…
The chemo-dynamics of galaxy halos beyond the Local Group may now be mapped out through the use of globular clusters and planetary nebulae as bright tracer objects, along with deep multi-slit spectroscopy of the integrated stellar light. We…
Dwarf galaxies make ideal laboratories to test galaxy evolution paradigms and cosmological models. Detailed studies of dwarfs across the spectrum allow us to gauge the efficacy of astrophysical processes at play in the lowest mass halos…
Gravitational potential fluctuations driven by bursty star formation can kinematically 'heat up' dark matter at the centres of dwarf galaxies. A key prediction of such models is that, at a fixed dark matter halo mass, dwarfs with a higher…
Galaxy surveys have shown that luminous galaxies are mainly distributed in large filaments and galaxy clusters. The remaining large volumes are virtually devoid of luminous galaxies. This is in concordance with the formation of the…
The study of dark matter substructure through strong gravitational lensing has shown enormous promise in probing the properties of dark matter on sub-galactic scales. This approach has already been used to place strong constraints on a wide…
The standard cold dark matter (CDM) model has recently been challenged by the claim that dwarf galaxies have dark matter halos with constant density cores. Consequently, numerous alternative dark matter candidates have recently been…
We present first results of a program to study the dynamics of undisturbed bulgeless, low surface density disk galaxies in order to probe the underlying structure of dark matter halos. High resolution H-alpha rotation curves are combined…
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…
Using high-resolution N-body simulations we study the stellar properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies resulting from the tidally induced morphological transformation of disky dwarfs on a cosmologically motivated eccentric orbit around the…
In the cold dark matter scenario, the smallest dark matter halos may be earth mass or smaller. These microhalos would be the densest dark matter objects in the Universe, making their accurate characterization important for astrophysical…
Dark matter halos contain a wealth of substructure in the form of subhalos and tidal streams. Enhancements in the dark matter density of these regions leads to enhanced rates in direct detection experiments, as well as enhanced dark matter…
Dark matter is one of the pillars of the current standard model of structure formation: it is assumed to constitute most of the matter in the Universe. However, it can so far only be probed indirectly through its gravitational effects, and…
In the standard cosmological model a mysterious cold dark matter (CDM) component dominates the formation of structures. Numerical studies of the formation of CDM halos have produced several robust results that allow unique tests of the…
We present a simplified analytic approach to the problem of the spiraling of a massive body orbiting within the dark halo of a dwarf galaxy. This dark halo is treated as the core region of a King distribution of dark matter particles, in…
We study binary stars moving through a uniform dark matter background and experiencing dynamical friction. The centre-of-mass motion of the pairs is taken into account. We derive formulas and timescales for the secular evolution of the…
Recent high-quality observations of dwarf and low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies have shown that their dark matter (DM) halos prefer flat central density profiles. On the other hand the standard cold dark matter model simulations predict…
We study the behaviour of the dynamical and stellar mass inside the effective radius (re) of early-type galaxies (ETGs). We use several samples of ETGs -ranging from 19 000 to 98 000 objects- from the ninth data release of the Sloan Digital…
The nature of dark matter remains one of the most pressing open questions in modern cosmology. Despite extensive experimental efforts, no direct or indirect detection of dark matter particles has been confirmed. This has motivated…