Cosmology Seminar Announcement Prof. Raja Guhathakurta UC Santa Cruz " The Stellar Halo of the Andromeda Spiral Galaxy and Dwarf Galaxy Building Blocks " Date: Thursday, April 7, 2005 416 Phy/Geo Time: 12:10 pm. Abstract: The outer halo of M31 has been the subject of many a study over the last decade. The stellar population studies fall into three broad categories: (1) ground-based wide-field imaging and photometry, most recently with CFHT/MegaCam and Subaru/Suprime-Cam; (2) deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging, including ultradeep images reaching below the main-sequence turnoff; and (3) spectroscopy of individual luminous red giant branch stars with Keck/DEIMOS. I will start by reviewing selected topics based on the first and third categories of studies touching upon subjects such as: bulge versus extended outer halo, orbit and progenitor of the giant southern tidal stream, outer disk-halo interface, halo dynamics, and chemical abundance constraints. Near the end of my talk, I will talk about the properties of dwarf galaxy building blocks including tidal disruption, internal dynamics, and mysteries associated with their formation and evolution.

E-Mail: raja@ucolick.org
Web Page: http://www.ucolick.org/%7Eraja/home.html