Speaker
Description
A common task in Galactic dynamics is the inference on the gravitational potential and mass distribution of resolved stellar systems, such as globular clusters, nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies, or haloes of Andromeda-like galaxies in the local Universe.
In one approach, the tracer population is described by a distribution function (DF) in the space of integrals of motion (e.g. actions), while the gravitational potential may be specified independently or determined by the DF itself. The model parameters are constrained by maximising the likelihood of the observed kinematic dataset, taking into account the incomplete phase-space information (e.g., unknown distance and/or proper motion) as well as measurement uncertainties.
I discuss the strengths and limitations of this technique using several examples:
(1) the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster,
(2) Sculptor dSph,
(3) globular clusters and planetary nebulae in M31.
