Recent Talks

Dark matter makes up most of the mass of the Universe but remains mysterious. I discuss recent progress in constraining its properties by measuring its distribution in the Universe from tiny dwarf galaxies to giant galaxy clusters, and comparing this with numerical simulations. The latest results favour a cold, collisionless particle that must lie beyond the standard model of particle physics. I discuss the known small scale problems with this model: the cusp-core and missing satellites problems, and I argue that these are likely due to baryonic "feedback" during galaxy formation. I conclude with a discussion of experiments underway to detect dark matter particles, and the role that astrophysics has to play in these too. There is an exciting a very real prospect of detecting a dark matter particle in the next five years.

3- Other spectroscopic surveys and analysis strategies

- eBOSS, BigBOSS, HETDEX, WEAVE, 4MOST

- data mashup: astrometry,  photometry and spectroscopy together

- reconstructing the Galaxy

- 'observing' galaxy simulations

- discovery and follow-up of interesting/exotic targets: HVS, UMPS, CEMPS, RCrBs...

5- Some current problems and opportunities

- simulating kinematics

- simulating variables

- simulating non-solar scaled populations

- simulating rare and extreme populations (e.g. X-ray sources, PNe,

  hot-WDs, AGB-manque', C stars, IR-emission by mass-losing stars)

- opportunities opened by asteroseismology

5-   The Galactic halo

- mass, extent, shape

- substructure, inner/outer halo

5- The Galactic bulge

- observational status on bulge kinematics and chemical properties in the context of other bulges

- ideas about the formation of the bulge

5- SPH basics

- numerical viscosity

- Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities

- other problems and their amelioration

2- Spectra

- APOGEE, RAVE, SDSS/SEGUE/BOSS, Gaia-ESO

- Spectral classification

- radial velocities

- automated data analysis

4- From external galaxies to the Milky Way

- basic equation of stellar statistics, computational methods

- overview of available MW codes

- expected populations X photometric depth and galactic coordinates

4-  The Galactic bulge

- structure

- dynamics

- origin

4- The stellar halo of the Galaxy

- more on dark matter in the Galaxy

- chemical tagging and reconstructing the star formation history of the Galactic disk.