Peter Ferguson – Unveiling dark matter in the near-field from present (DES) and future (LSST) cosmological surveys

Although dark matter makes up ~85% of the matter in our Universe, we have not yet detected it in laboratory settings and its nature is not yet fully understood. However, observations of the smallest and faintest substructures in the local Universe, such as ultra-faint dwarf galaxies and stellar streams, from wide-field photometric surveys continue to provide key insights into the distribution and behavior of dark matter. In this talk, I will discuss how we have used Dark Energy Survey (DES) and DECam observations of local-volume satellites and stellar streams to further our understanding. In particular, how we constrain dark matter microphysics through the low-mass end of the galaxy-halo connection and probe its distribution at many scales in our Galaxy. Additionally, I will describe our plans within the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) to build upon our efforts in DES and use the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) data to infer even more about the nature of dark matter.
[Slides]