Properties of Dark Matter Halos and Novel Signatures of Baryons in Them

Abstract

This thesis investigates the properties of dark matter halos and places constraints on the baryons within them by utilizing observational data. In Chapter 2, we use spherical collapse dynamics to calculate the non-linear over-density of a dark matter halo at virialization given realistic initial and final density profiles in an Einstein-de Sitter cosmology and cosmologies with matter, dark energy and possible curvature. We find that the non-linear over-density at virialization can be reduced by as much as a factor of 10 as compared to the standard value.