Testing dark matter physics at the scale of dwarf galaxies

by Jesús Zavala Franco (University of Waterloo)

Wednesday 6 Feb 2013, 13:30 → 14:20 Europe/Stockholm

Nordita West Seminar Room

The observed abundance and inner densities of dwarf galaxies have been enduring challenges for the otherwise-remarkably successful Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm. They may put to the test two of the fundamental hypothesis underlying this paradigm: dark matter particles are collisionless and have low primordial thermal velocities.

In this talk I will review the current status of these challenges and describe how Warm Dark Matter (WDM) and Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) models are viable alternatives to alleviate these problems, arguing that it is timely to study them as seriously as CDM in the context of galaxy formation.