The “Lambda cold dark matter” (LCDM) cosmological model is one of the great achievements in Physics of the past thirty years. Theoretical predictions formulated in the 1980s turned out to agree remarkably well with measurements, performed decades later, of the galaxy distribution and the temperature structure of the microwave background radiation. Yet, these successes do not inform us directly about the nature of the dark matter. Indeed, there are competing (and controversial) claims that the dark matter might have already been discovered, either through the annihilation of cold, or the decay of warm, dark matter particles. In astrophysics the identity of the dark matter manifests itself clearly in the properties of dwarf galaxies, such as the satellites of the Milky Way. I will discuss predictions from cosmological simulations assuming cold and warm (in the form of sterile neutrinos) dark matter and show how astronomical observations can conclusively distinguish between the two.

BIO
Carlos Frenk is the Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics and founding Director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University's world-renowned theoretical cosmology research group. He is one of the originators of the “Cold dark matter” theory for the formation of structure in our Universe. Along with collaborators from all over the world, he builds model universes, based on the known laws of physics. Using some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, Frenk and colleagues try to understand how our Universe evolved from the simple beginnings of the Big Bang to the present day and how it developed the complex structures, composed of stars and galaxies, that we see around us today.

Frenk is the Principal Investigator of the Virgo consortium, the leading international collaboration in cosmological supercomputer simulations. He has published over 500 scientific papers and is one of the most frequently cited authors in the space science literature. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2004 and has received numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, The Max Born medal from the German Physics Society, the Gruber Cosmology prize, the Hoyle medal, the George Darwin Prize, the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the Oort Professorship, the Royal Society Wolfson award, etc. He was made Commander of the British Empire in the Queen's 2017 birthday list. He features regulary on radio and TV.