Local Group Cosmology

Aimed at graduate students and young researchers, this volume presents observational techniques, tools, and models for studying Local Group galaxies.

David Martínez-Delgado (Edited by)

9781107023802, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 October 2013

246 pages, 111 b/w illus. 1 table
26.1 x 18.4 x 2.1 cm, 0.72 kg

One of the most fascinating unresolved problems of modern astrophysics is how the galaxies we observe today were formed. The Lambda-Cold Dark Matter paradigm predicts that large spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way formed through accretion and tidal disruption of satellite galaxies. The galaxies of the Local Group provide the best laboratory in which to investigate these galaxy formation processes because they can be studied with sufficiently high resolution to exhume fossils of galactic evolution embedded in the spatial distribution, kinematics, and chemical abundances of their oldest stars. Based on the twentieth Winter School of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, this volume provides a firm grounding for graduate students and early career researchers working on Local Group cosmology. It presents modules from eight eminent and experienced scientists at the forefront of Local Group research, and includes overviews of observational techniques, diagnostic tools, and various theoretical models.

List of contributors
List of participants
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. The formation of the Milky Way in the CDM paradigm Ken Freeman
2. Dark matter content and tidal effects in Local Group dwarf galaxies Steven R. Majewski
3. Notes on the missing satellites problem James Bullock
4. The Milky Way satellite galaxies Pavel Kroupa
5. Stellar tidal streams Rodrigo Ibata
6. Tutorial: the analysis of colour-magnitude diagrams David Valls-Gabaud
7. Tutorial: modeling tidal streams using N-body simulations Jorge Peñarrubia.

Subject Areas: Physics [PH], Cosmology & the universe [PGK], Astronomy, space & time [PG], Mathematics & science [P]