Presented By: Department of Physics
Cosmo-Astro Seminar | The progenitor’s impact on globular cluster stellar stream models
Brian Cook, University of North Carolina
Dynamically cold stellar streams from globular cluster progenitors are important probes of the Milky Way’s dark matter; their kinematic heating, for example, could help constrain the physical properties of dark matter subhalos. Direct N-body simulations are considered the ground truth, but are often an impractical choice due to the computational expense. Particle-spray methods successfully produce stream models very quickly, but are reliant on making certain approximations about escape physics. We have bridged the gap between these approaches with KRIOS, a new basis-expansion N-body code. In this talk, I will provide a high-level review of KRIOS’ technical details, discuss preliminary results on streams from spinning progenitors, and address the potential complementarity between KRIOS and the particle-spray distribution function developed here in Ann Arbor.