February 19, 2013
All Day
PRB 4138
The observed abundance and inner densities of dwarf galaxies have been enduring challenges for the otherwise-remarkably successful Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm. They may put to the test two of the fundamental hypothesis underlying this paradigm: dark matter particles are collisionless and have low primordial thermal velocities. In this talk I will review the current status of these challenges and describe how Warm Dark Matter (WDM) and Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) models are viable alternatives to alleviate these problems, arguing that it is timely to study them as seriously as CDM in the context of galaxy formation.
