ITC Colloquium - Alyson Brooks (Rutgers)

Date: 

Thursday, November 15, 2018, 11:00am to 12:00pm

Location: 

Pratt
"Interpreting Dwarf Galaxies"

Dwarf galaxies have long provided a challenge to galaxy formation theory within the favored Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmology. In recent years, advances in cosmological simulations of galaxies have yielded new insights into dwarf formation, pointing to the fact that baryonic physics can reconcile tensions between theory and observations. 
Different simulators are generally now capable of forming realistic classical dwarf galaxies despite variations in adopted star formation and feedback recipes. However, as simulations achieve ever-higher resolution, we are now entering an era in which cosmological simulations may begin to resolve dwarf galaxies down into the ultra-faint range for the first time.  I will show that the assumptions simulators have adopted in the classical dwarf regime will lead to widely varying predictions for the properties of ultra-faint galaxies. I will discuss some of the future observations of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that have the potential to elucidate the physics of the first star formation.