Understanding Nearby Galaxy Structure in a Cosmological Context
Kristine Spekkens (Rutgers)
While the current cosmological model for the composition and
growth of structure in the Universe is very successful at explaining
observations on large scales and at high redshift, there has been little
progress towards understanding galactic structure in the context of this
framework. In this talk I will highlight some key differences between the
kinematics of spiral galaxies and predictions from galaxy formation
theory, and I'll present a new velocity field model to assess the role of
non-circular motions in generating some of these discrepancies. I will
also discuss the implications of recent ALFALFA legacy survey observations
of optically dark HI clouds in Virgo for disk galaxy evolution in a
cluster environment and for the abundance of gas-rich starless halos in
the Local Volume.
