Galactic Archaeology and Dynamics
Dark matter haloes and their subhaloes constitute the fundamental building blocks of the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm. Structures assemble hierarchically through the accretion of lower mass constituents; thus, the halo of the Milky Way is littered with lower mass subhaloes and stripped subhalo material due to interactions with the Galactic tidal field. Subhaloes hosting luminous galaxies are likened to the dwarf satellites that orbit the Milky Way, whereas the stellar remains from destroyed dwarfs comprise the bulk of the stellar halo. By studying tracer populations in the Milky Way halo, such as the satellite galaxies, halo stars and globular clusters, we are able to address the following fundamental questions:- How did the Milky Way halo form and evolve?
- How massive is the Milky Way? How is the dark matter distributed?
- Do the properties of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies agree with the predictions of the CDM model?
- How did the first galaxies form? Where are they now in the Milky Way?
- How does reionization shape the properties of the dwarf galaxies and the lowest metallicity halo stars?
At the ICC we use state-of-the-art cosmological simulations and observational survey data to answer these questions.