Speaker
Description
Low-mass dwarf satellites of more massive hosts have been used to test cold dark matter expectations, in particular in their internal dynamics, distributions and motion. The latter identified phase-space correlations such as the planes of satellite galaxies and lopsided asymmetries as serious challenges. These build on several well studied systems of satellite galaxies around hosts in the Local Group and nearby. Yet, these hosts’ individual formation and interaction histories might have played a role in shaping their satellite systems. We therefore now need to supplement such in-depth studies of specific systems with a more statistical approach to fully test expectations of the standard cosmological model, different dark matter types, and other dark matter alternatives. This requires appropriate metrics of phase-space correlations to account for the reduced dimensionality of the available data, and most importantly to allow to combine information of a diverse range of systems. I will discuss related difficulties, biases to account for, and pitfalls to avoid, to ultimately exploit the promises of large amounts of data from upcoming surveys in assessing satellite galaxy phase-space correlations. I will end with first results on how changing the types of dark matter in cosmological simulations from cold to warm or self-interacting affects predicted phase-space correlations.