Dark Matter Halos from First Principles

Liliya Williams

February 28, 2013

–

Abstract: In the last couple of decades, high resolution N-body simulations have established the detailed properties of dark matter halos, such as their density and velocity dispersion profiles. However, the physical origin of these halo properties are still not understood. In this talk I will describe a statistical mechanical approach that derives the steady state properties of isotropic collisionless self-gravitating systems from first principles. This prediction is a very good match to the results of N-body simulations. I will discuss the implications of this prediction, and some current and future work.