Speaker
Description
Dwarf galaxies can serve as powerful probes of the nature of dark matter, but this requires a robust understanding of how baryonic feedback reshapes their dark matter halos. The stellar-to-halo mass ratio is often treated as the primary parameter governing feedback-driven core formation in cold dark matter halos. Using the state-of-the-art EDGE simulations of dwarf galaxies, I will show that the stellar-to-halo mass ratio is only partially correlated with the central dark matter density at z=0, which instead is highly sensitive to a galaxy’s formation history. I will introduce a new quantity that can more accurately predict the impact of baryonic feedback on dark matter halos. I will finish with a look at ongoing work using the LYRA simulations, exploring which properties of the ultra-faint regime are most sensitive to the underlying dark matter model.