Milky Way substructure in the context of the \Lamba CDM paradigm

by G. Martinez (OKC)

Tuesday 13 Nov 2012, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

FA31

Milky Way satellite galaxies have many desirable characteristics (e.g. they are dark matter dominated, relatively close by, and have low intrinsic flux) that make these galaxies ideal laboratories for testing dark matter theories. I will discuss the implication that the distribution of these galaxies have on the \Lambda CDM paradigm as well as the methodology used for determining dark matter halo properties using stellar tracers. This method incorporates the effect of stellar foregrounds, stellar binaries, and selection biases within a Bayesian framework as well as accounting for prior influences. The results are better astrophysical constraints on dark matter properties by the reduction of systematic and statistical errors compared to previous analyses.