Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

The Aquarius Project: Dark Matter under a Numerical Microscope

Julio Navarro

University of Victoria

In our current paradigm for the growth of structure, dark matter halos are the basic units of non-linear structures in the present Universe. I will report results from the latest numerical simulations of galaxy-scale dark halos. These state-of-the-art simulations achieve resolutions high enough that a number of previously pending questions regarding the structure and substructure of dark matter halos can now be addressed with confidence. Tests demonstrate detailed convergence for (sub)structures well below a millionth the mass of the final system, below the mass scale associated with even the faintest galaxies known. I will discuss applications of this simulation series, such as accurate forecasts of the expected signal both in Earth-bound experiments designed to detect dark matter directly, and in indirect detection experiments like Fermi which attempt to image dark matter annihilation radiation at gamma-ray wavelengths.