"Unraveling the physical processes that shape the smallest galaxies"

Abstract: Due to their shallow potential wells and the dominant role of star formation in their evolution, low-mass “dwarf” galaxies serve as crucial testing grounds in which to evaluate and expand our understanding of the physical processes that govern the interplay between halo assembly and galaxy evolution. Because of their intrinsic faintness, however, we are only now able to sample the dwarf galaxy population in a large-volume, wide-field manner.

Despite being one of the most important physical drivers of galaxy evolution, we still lack a quantitative picture of how star formation unfolds within a dynamic, galactic context. In my talk, I will demonstrate the power of our emerging population-level view of dwarf galaxies to measure and constrain key aspects of galactic star formation, and I will discuss the ramifications of these findings on our understanding of the interplay between baryonic and dark sector physics in governing galaxy assembly. Lastly, I will look ahead to the next decade of large-volume science with dwarfs, including my upcoming work to extend our view of dwarf galaxies to early cosmic times and illuminate dark matter in the low-mass Universe.