Speaker
Description
Precision cosmology is increasingly constrained by tensions in structure formation and the nature of dark matter. In this context, the internal structure of dark matter haloes offers a sensitive probe of non-standard dark matter physics. I will present results from the AIDA-TNG project, a suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations based on the IllustrisTNG model and extended to Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) and Warm Dark Matter (WDM) scenarios. Focusing on halo shapes across mass scales and environments, we show that SIDM leads to rounder inner haloes due to collisional isotropization, while WDM results in later-forming and more spherical structures compared to CDM. These morphological differences have measurable consequences for lensing observables, satellite anisotropies, and galaxy-halo alignment statistics—offering promising routes to distinguish dark matter models using upcoming surveys like Euclid, LSST, and JWST. Our findings emphasize the importance of combining astrophysical observables and next-generation data to test the foundations of the ΛCDM paradigm.
