18 September 2003

Speaker: Kathryn Johnston (Wesleyan University)

Title: Stellar Halos and Hierarchical Structure Formation

Abstract: Surveys of stellar halos around our own Milky Way and other galaxies have uncovered tantalizing traces of past and present satellite destruction in the form of trails of very low surface brightness debris (typically mu>28 mag/arcsec^2). Such traces can be interpreted as signatures of hierarchical structure formation. This talk presents the results from a study which asks whether the properties (e.g. frequency, surface brightness and morphology) of these trails are consistent with the predictions of galaxies built within the current standard Lambda CDM model of structure formation.

References for students:

1. Ferguson et al 2002, AJ, 124, 1452
2. Johnston, Hernquist & Bolte 1996, ApJ, 465, 278
3. Johnston 1998 ApJ, 495, 297
4. Newberg et al. 2002, ApJ, 569, 245