Susmita Adhikari obtained her PhD in Astronomy at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. After her PhD she was a Postdoctoral fellow at The Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University. She then spent a year as a postdoc in a joint position between the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at The University of Chicago & Fermilab before she moved to IISER Pune.
Susmita studies the formation and structure of dark matter halos and the co-evolution of galaxies within them. She uses theory and simulations to interpret the observations of gravitationally bound objects, ranging from massive galaxy clusters to faint galaxies, primarily to learn about the underlying nature of dark matter and gravity. Susmita is also interested in pursuing the connection between cosmic structure formation and the sources of gravitational waves.
Title: Tracing Dark matter halos and their boundaries
Abstract: Understanding the formation and evolution of non-linear structure in the universe can shed light on some of the most fundamental questions in Cosmology. In this talk I will focus on how the halo density profile, with a focus on halo boundaries, can be used to extract information about the halo- galaxy co-evolution, the nature of gravity and dark matter. The outskirts of halos has emerged as a probe of physics in the interface of galaxy formation and Cosmology. I will discuss the current observations of massive clusters and detailed the distribution of galaxies, dark matter and gas within it and what it tells us about halo evolution.