Monday, February 23, 2009, Joint Physics Colloquium, 4:30 PM, Wean 7500, CMU

Piero Madau
Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz,

"The Via Lactea Project: A Glimpse into the Invisible World of Dark Matter"

Abstract: 

It is a clear, unique prediction of cold dark matter theories that galaxies are built hierarchically and are embedded in massive, extended halos teeming with self-bound substructure or "subhalos". The Via Lactea Simulation Project has produced the first detailed picture of the Galactic dark matter halo, shed new clues on the formation and assembly history of the Milky Way, and features in the OASCR Breakthrough 2008 Report on Recent Significant Advancements in Computational Science. The wealth of substructure predicted by these simulations has implications for models of reionization, stellar streams, gravitational lensing, indirect dark matter detection experiments, and the Local Group dwarf galaxy population.