Galactic-Scale Tests of Fundamental Physics

Abstract: Conventional probes of fundamental physics tend to consider one of three regimes: small scales, cosmological scales or the strong-field regime. Since LCDM is known to have several galactic-scale issues and novel physics (modified gravity, non-cold dark matter etc.) can alter galactic dynamics and morphology, tests of fundamental physics on astrophysical scales can provide tight constraints which are complementary to traditional techniques. By forward-modelling observational signals on a source-by-source basis and marginalising over models describing other astrophysical and observational processes, it is possible to harness the constraining power of galaxies whilst accounting for their complexity. In this talk I will demonstrate how these Bayesian Monte Carlo-based forward models can be used to constrain a variety of gravitational theories and outline ways to assess their robustness to baryonic effects.

This event is hosted by CMU.