galaxy halos

I spent time working out how we might challenge galaxy formation in CDM by considering normal galaxy halos. The simulations make several non-trivial predictions, although all are hard to test: They predict non-spherical halos, with substantial triaxiality. They predict small-scale structure including concentrated substructure in real space and also velocity space. They predict that central galaxies at the centers of halos have different formation histories and properties than satellites. Each of these predictions has different kinds of uncertainty associated with it, and relates to other predictions, so directly getting at fundamental CDM properties is challenging. But I think it may be possible with a combination of Milky Way and Milky Way halo kinematics and structure, weak lensing on distant galaxies, clustering studies and studies of groups, and models of galaxy merger and accretion events.

I also continued work on the Masjedi paper.