Symposium S7  23-24 June 2025

Novel probes for dark matter on galactic scales

Aims and scope

The number of known stellar substructures and tidal streams in the Local Group has surged dramatically in recent years, thanks to automated wide-field surveys (e.g., SDSS, DES, HSC-SSP) and the Gaia mission. This unprecedented wealth of data offers a promising laboratory for testing various dark matter theories. However, it also presents a series of new challenges and questions:

• How can we disentangle baryonic physics from dark matter physics?
• How many dwarf galaxies exist in the Local Group?
• What distinguishes the faintest globular clusters from ultra-faint dwarf galaxies?
• How significant are the perturbations caused by the LMC and Sagittarius to the disc and the halo?
• How can we constrain the abundance of fully dark substructures?
• What can we learn about the Galactic potential through tidal streams?

And looking ahead,

• What preparations are needed to fully leverage upcoming wide-field imaging data (Euclid, LSST)?
• What techniques will help us overcome the resolution limits of cosmological simulations?

During this two day symposium, organized into six sessions covering simulations, theory, and observations, we aim to address these questions and challenges. We will review the observational and numerical tools currently at our disposal and outline what is needed in the near future to make the best use of the available and forthcoming data.

Programme

The symposium consists of six separate sessions with focus topic as follows:

• Observational challenges
• Dynamical masses of dwarf galaxies
• Milky Way assembly and stellar streams
• Cosmological and controlled simulations
• Alternative probes of dark matter
• Dynamical modelling techniques

Invited speakers

Scientific organisers

• Raphael Errani (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Zhen Yuan (Nanjing University)
• Giuseppina Battaglia (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias)
• Michelle Collins (University of Surrey)
• Carlo Nipoti (University of Bologna)
• Jorge Penarrubia (University of Edinburgh)
• Matt Walker (Carnegie Mellon University)

Contact

You can reach out to the organizers of the "Novel probes for dark matter on galactic scales" symposium at darkmatter2025 @ cmu.edu

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Select a session S1: Gaia: The (TWO) Billion Star Galaxy Census: Anticipating the Leap in Understanding of Planets, … S2: XRISM and friends: the sharpest view of the X-ray Universe S3: Young Stars and Clusters S4: Setting the stage for planet formation: the importance of the environment for the evolution of … S5: Binary Stellar Interactions and Their Outcomes S6: The future of visible/infrared High-Angular Resolution Astronomy in Europe S7: Novel probes for dark matter on galactic scales S8: Cosmic Chemical Enrichment: A tale of stars and galaxies S9: Stellar Ages Across the Cosmos: Unveiling the Chronology of the Universe S10: Science with gravitational lensing in the multi space-telescope era: new prospects and opportunities S11: European astronomy: science vision beyond 2040 S12: Understanding and Interpreting Massive Black Holes in the Early Universe S13: Globular Clusters: Exploring Multiple Stellar Populations at the Frontier of Spectroscopy, … S14: New Frontiers in Characterising Gas-Giant Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs S15: The changing macrocosm of astroinformatics : big data, artificial intelligence, statistical … SS1: PLATO's Prospects in Exoplanet and Stellar Science SS2: A space telescope to rule them all: results from Euclid's first 50 square degrees and challenges … SS3: The chemistry of planet formation SS4: The future of terrestrial exoplanet characterization SS5: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time: a European pathway from First Look to … SS6: A panoptic view of the solar neighborhood: new insights into the nearest ISM laboratory. SS7: WST: the Wide-field spectroscopic facility. SS8: Astrochemical Horizons: From Galaxies to Comets SS9: Massive Stars and their Diverse Transients SS10: Metals and dust enrichment across cosmic epochs: models and observations SS11: JWST Data Pipeline SS12: The Future of Scientific Publishing: Strategies and Challenges for Astronomy SS13: Highly magnetised neutron stars under the spotlight SS14: Gamma-Ray Bursts and Fast X-ray Transients in the SVOM and Einstein Probe Era SS15: Timing, spectroscopic, and polarimetric properties of weakly magnetized neutron stars SS16: A new picture of galaxy evolution from Cosmic Dawn to Cosmic Noon: after the first years of JWST … SS17: The Galactic Center: Multiscale and Multiphysics Evolution through Multiwavelength Observations SS18: The rise and fall of dust in SNRs, in AGB stars and in the ISM SS19: Galaxies and ICM across the protocluster to cluster transition SS20: Polarimetry of young stellar objects: instrumentation, observations and models SS21: Stellar magnetism and its effects on the planetary environment: from solar-like stars to ultracool dwarfs SS22: Modelling the first billion years SS23: The very high energy view on massive stellar ecosystems SS24: Compact binary millisecond pulsars and the growing spider web SS25: Overfed Giants: Early Universe and Observational Cosmology with the ELTs SS26: Quasar spectroscopy dissecting the Reionization epoch: XQR-30 and beyond SS27: Unleashing the Power: Linking the Small and the Large in Multi-phase AGN Outflows SS28: The Outer Solar System in its Stellar Environment - in Large Surveys Area SS29: Accretion Bursts in Protostars: Illuminating the Path of Star Formation SS30: A Multi-scale Perspective on Stellar Feedback in the Context of Galaxy Evolution SS31: Numerical models of extreme stellar explosions: bridging the gap between the central engine and the … SS32: Probing the dynamics of galactic nuclei with nuclear transients. SS33: A bright future for UV astronomy SS34: XMXS 2025: Extreme Matter in Extreme Stars SS35: Cracking Cosmic Collisions: Cutting-Edge Tools to study galaxy mergers SS36: From giants to dwarfs: unveiling stellar and AGN feedback in the first 3 Gyr of the Universe SS37: A multi-wavelength journey through the realm of high-mass X-ray binaries the missing link to … SS38: A bright future for Far-Infrared Astrophysics in Europe SS39: The magnetised Universe from galaxies to cosmic voids in the SKA & CTAO era SS40: Gamma-ray astronomy breakthroughs: New insights in the extreme universe SS41: Urgent Atomic and Molecular Data Needs for Astronomy and Astrophysics SS42: Kilonovae: What do we know and what else can observations of kilonovae tell us? SS43: Novae: From Accretion to Post-Eruption Phenomena SS44: The HRMOS instrument: very high spectral resolution combined with multi-object capabilities SS45: Early Career Astronomers and their supporters SS46: Is balancing mental health, care and research work possible in Astronomy and Space Science? SS47: Beyond awareness: Reducing the carbon footprint of European astronomy SS48: European-African collaboration for the construction and support of existing and future African … SS49: European Forum of Astronomical Communities SS50: Diversity and Inclusion in Project Management and Leadership SS51: An Intersectional Approach to EDI Strategies SS52: The Legacy of the IAU-GA 2024 for Africa-Europe Collaborations in Astronomy SS53: Dust, Gas and Planets in Debris Disk Systems LS1: The ESA Science programme LS2: The ESA Space Science Archives LS3: The SKA Observatory: preparing the community for SKA science LS4: Engaging the European public with the wonder of upcoming solar eclipses LS5: Getting the most out of ESO data: a hands-on session on the ESO Science Archive and data processing tools LS6: The ALMA 2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade: status update LS7: Your science with the VLTI: easier than you think! LS8: Reimagining Astronomy Education in Europe LS9: Astronomy on Tap Europe Lunch Session LS10: Classical Astronomical Observatories and UNESCO World Heritage