Small Galaxies, Cosmic Questions - II

Scientific Rationale

Dwarf galaxies are unique laboratories for studying galaxy formation processes and testing key cosmological predictions. They are the building blocks of more massive galaxies in the current galaxy formation paradigm, and their relatively old and metal poor stellar populations give clues to the formation of the first stars and galaxies. Despite their low masses, their relatively large dark matter fractions allow us to probe the nature of dark matter on small scales.

Deep photometric and spectroscopic surveys have been key to enhancing our understanding of dwarf galaxies. A large number of these entities have been discovered in recent years, pushing the boundary of the faintest galaxies we know of and raise fundamental questions about the formation of first stars and galaxies in the lowest mass dark matter halos. JWST is also revolutionising the field by providing new data on, and discovery of, the counterparts of these faint objects at higher redshifts. In the coming years, progress will only accelerate thanks to to various upcoming surveys and datasets, such as the Rubin Observatory, the Roman Space Telescope, and WEAVE.

On the other hand, theoretical modelling of these galaxies in a cosmological context has been very challenging due to their low mass and faint luminosities, not to mention their sensitivities to galaxy formation processes. Despite these challenges, both hydrodynamical simulations and semiempirical + Nbody models have had major advances in recent years allowing more robust predictions for properties of these objects.

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In this conference, we would like to bring together researchers working on various aspects of dwarf galaxy formation and evolution across cosmic time to discuss the recent progress and key open questions and challenges for the upcoming years. In particular, we will be covering the following broad areas:

• The role of dwarf galaxies in the formation of Galactic halos. Invited review: Amina Helmi (Groningen)
• Dwarf satellite population in the Local Group. Invited review: Michelle Collins (Surrey)
• Star formation histories, metallicities and stellar populations in dwarf galaxies. Invited review: Alex Ji (Chicago)
• What can dwarf galaxies reveal about the nature of dark matter? Invited review: Ethan Nadler (USC & Carnegie Observatories)
• The interplay between cosmic reionisation and the formation of dwarf galaxies. Invited review: Alejandro Benitez-Llambay (Milan)
• Dwarf galaxies beyond the Local Group. Invited review: Shany Danieli (Princeton)
• Dwarf galaxies at higher redshift, advances through JWST. Invited review: Hakim Atek (IAP)
• Upcoming surveys. Invited review: Risa Wechsler (Stanford)
• Wrapping up: pressing questions and future prospects. Invited review: Carlos Frenk (Durham)

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There will be a stellar streams workshop “Streams24: The Theory Edition” the following week (5-9th August) hosted at Durham University. If you are interested, you can see details here.

Code of Conduct

The organisers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, nationality or religion. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. All participants are required to abide by the following Code of Conduct to help us achieve a safe and positive conference for everyone. Please follow these guidelines:

1. Be kind to and respect others. Do not insult or put down other attendees.
2. Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion.
3. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the organisers without a refund of any charge.

Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to either Sownak Bose (sownak.bose@durham.ac.uk), Azi Fattahi (azadeh.fattahi-savadjani@durham.ac.uk), any member of the SOC, or one of the astronomy allies.

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Acknowledgement

This code of conduct is based on the "London Code of Conduct", as originally designed for the conference "Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology", held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse.