Dr. Frank van den Bosch

Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy - Heidelberg

"The Galaxy-Dark Matter Connection"

Galaxies are believed to form and reside inside extended dark matter haloes. Consequently, the large-scale distribution of galaxies is related to that of the dark matter, albeit it in a complicated, biased way. I will present a novel technique to determine the galaxy-dark connection, and demonstrate how it can be used to constrain cosmological parameters as well as the physics of galaxy formation. I will also show how this method can be used to interpret galaxy-galaxy lensing, which is a promising new technique that can be used to directly probe the dark matter that permeates our Universe.

Background reading:
• The Importance of Satellite Quenching for the Build-Up of the Red Sequence of Present Day Galaxies (2007)
• Towards a concordant model of halo occupation statistics (2007)
• Dwarf galaxy rotation curves and the core problem of dark matter haloes (2001)
• Constraints on the Structure of Dark Matter Halos from the Rotation Curves of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies (2000)
• Linking early- and late-type galaxies to their dark matter haloes (2003)
• Semianalytical Models for the Formation of Disk Galaxies. I. Constraints from the Tully-Fisher Relation (2000)

Received February 4, 2008