Dark Halo Contraction and the Stellar IMF: Constraints from Scaling Relations and Strong Lensing

Aaron Dutton

August 22, 2011

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Abstract: Cosmological N-body simulations make precise predictions for the structure of dark matter haloes in LCDM cosmologies. However, in order to test these predictions with observations, and hence constrain the nature of dark matter, there are two key unknowns: the response of dark matter haloes to gaalxy formation; and the stellar initial mass function (IMF). In this talk I will present constraints on these unknowns based on two approaches: scaling relations and strong gravitational lensing.