The mass assembly history of the Milky Way can inform both theory of galaxy formation and the underlying cosmological model. Thus, observational constraints on the properties of both its baryonic and dark matter contents are sought. Here, we show that hypervelocity stars (HVSs) can in principle provide such constraints. We model the observed velocity distribution of HVSs, produced by tidal break-up of stellar binaries caused by Sgr A*. Considering a Galactic Centre (GC) binary population consistent with that inferred in more observationally accessible regions, a fit to current HVS data with significance level >5 per cent can only be obtained if the escape velocity from the GC to 50 kpc is VG ≲ 850 km s^(−1), regardless of the enclosed mass distribution. When a Navarro, Frenk and White matter density profile for the dark matter halo is assumed, haloes with VG ≲ 850 km s^(−1) are in agreement with predictions in the Λ cold dark matter model and a subset of models around M200 ∼ 0.5–1.5 × 10^(12) M_⊙ and rs ≲ 35 kpc can also reproduce Galactic circular velocity data. HVS data alone cannot currently exclude potentials with VG > 850 km s^(−1). Finally, specific constraints on the halo mass from HVS data are highly dependent on the assumed baryonic mass potentials. This first attempt to simultaneously constrain GC and dark halo properties is primarily hampered by the paucity and quality of data. It nevertheless demonstrates the potential of our method, that may be fully realized with the ESA Gaia mission.

We investigate possible signatures of halo assembly bias for spectroscopically selected galaxy groups from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey using weak lensing measurements from the spatially overlapping regions of the deeper, high-imaging-quality photometric Kilo-Degree Survey. We use GAMA groups with an apparent richness larger than 4 to identify samples with comparable mean host halo masses but with a different radial distribution of satellite galaxies, which is a proxy for the formation time of the haloes. We measure the weak lensing signal for groups with a steeper than average and with a shallower than average satellite distribution and find no sign of halo assembly bias, with the bias ratio of 0.85(-0.25)(+0.37), which is consistent with the Lambda cold dark matter prediction. Our galaxy groups have typical masses of 10(13) M-circle dot h(-1), naturally complementing previous studies of halo assembly bias on galaxy cluster scales.

We present predictions for the galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) profile from the EAGLE hydrodynamical cosmological simulation at redshift z = 0.18, in the spatial range 0.02 < R/(h(-1) Mpc) < 2, and for five logarithmically equispaced stellar mass bins in the range 10.3 < log(10)(Mstar/M-circle dot) < 11.8. We compare these excess surface density profiles to the observed signal from background galaxies imaged by the Kilo Degree Survey around spectroscopically confirmed foreground galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Exploiting the GAMA galaxy group catalogue, the profiles of central and satellite galaxies are computed separately for groups with at least five members to minimize contamination. EAGLE predictions are in broad agreement with the observed profiles for both central and satellite galaxies, although the signal is underestimated at R approximate to 0.5-2 h(-1) Mpc for the highest stellar mass bins. When central and satellite galaxies are considered simultaneously, agreement is found only when the selection function of lens galaxies is taken into account in detail. Specifically, in the case of GAMA galaxies, it is crucial to account for the variation of the fraction of satellite galaxies in bins of stellar mass induced by the flux-limited nature of the survey. We report the inferred stellar-to-halo mass relation and we find good agreement with recent published results. We note how the precision of the GGL profiles in the simulation holds the potential to constrain fine-grained aspects of the galaxy-dark matter connection.

We study the stellar-to-halo mass relation of central galaxies in the range 9.75x10^10 h^-2 M_sun, the stellar mass increases with halo mass as ~M_h^0.25. The ratio of dark matter to stellar mass has a minimum at a halo mass of 8x10^11 h^-1 M_sun with a value of M_h/M_*=56_-10^+16 [h]. We also use the GAMA group catalogue to select centrals and satellites in groups with five or more members, which trace regions in space where the local matter density is higher than average, and determine for the first time the stellar-to-halo mass relation in these denser environments. We find no significant differences compared to the relation from the full sample, which suggests that the stellar-to-halo mass relation does not vary strongly with local density. Furthermore, we find that the stellar-to-halo mass relation of central galaxies can also be obtained by modelling the lensing signal and stellar mass function of satellite galaxies only, which shows that the assumptions to model the satellite contribution in the halo model do not significantly bias the stellar-to-halo mass relation. Finally, we show that the combination of weak lensing with the stellar mass function can be used to test the purity of group catalogues.

We study the stellar-to-halo mass relation of central galaxies in the range 9.7 5 × 1010h-2Ms, the stellar mass increases with halo mass as ˜ {}M_h^{0.25}. The ratio of dark matter to stellar mass has a minimum at a halo mass of 8 × 1011h-1Ms with a value of M_h/M_*=56_{-10}^{+16} [h]. We also use the GAMA group catalogue to select centrals and satellites in groups with five or more members, which trace regions in space where the local matter density is higher than average, and determine for the first time the stellar-to-halo mass relation in these denser environments. We find no significant differences compared to the relation from the full sample, which suggests that the stellar-to-halo mass relation does not vary strongly with local density. Furthermore, we find that the stellar-to-halo mass relation of central galaxies can also be obtained by modelling the lensing signal and stellar mass function of satellite galaxies only, which shows that the assumptions to model the satellite contribution in the halo model do not significantly bias the stellar-to-halo mass relation. Finally, we show that the combination of weak lensing with the stellar mass function can be used to test the purity of group catalogues.

Galaxies and their dark matter haloes are part of a complex network of mass structures, collectively called the cosmic web. Using the tidal tensor prescription these structures can be classified into four cosmic environments: voids, sheets, filaments and knots. As the cosmic web may influence the formation and evolution of dark matter haloes and the galaxies they host, we aim to study the effect of these cosmic environments on the average mass of galactic haloes. To this end we measure the galaxy-galaxy lensing profile of 91 195 galaxies, within 0.039 <z <0.263, from the spectroscopic Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey, using {˜ }100 ° ^2 of overlapping data from the Kilo-Degree Survey. In each of the four cosmic environments we model the contributions from group centrals, satellites and neighbouring groups to the stacked galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles. After correcting the lens samples for differences in the stellar mass distribution, we find no dependence of the average halo mass of central galaxies on their cosmic environment. We do find a significant increase in the average contribution of neighbouring groups to the lensing profile in increasingly dense cosmic environments. We show, however, that the observed effect can be entirely attributed to the galaxy density at much smaller scales (within 4 h-1 Mpc), which is correlated with the density of the cosmic environments. Within our current uncertainties we find no direct dependence of galaxy halo mass on their cosmic environment.

Galaxies and their dark matter haloes are part of a complex network of mass structures, collectively called the cosmic web. Using the tidal tensor prescription these structures can be classified into four cosmic environments: voids, sheets, filaments and knots. As the cosmic web may influence the formation and evolution of dark matter haloes and the galaxies they host, we aim to study the effect of these cosmic environments on the average mass of galactic haloes. To this end we measure the galaxy-galaxy lensing profile of 91,195 galaxies, within 0.039 < z < 0.263, from the spectroscopic Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, using 100 square degrees of overlapping data from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS). In each of the four cosmic environments we model the contributions from group centrals, satellites and neighbouring groups to the stacked galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles. After correcting the lens samples for differences in the stellar mass distribution, we find no dependence of the average halo mass of central galaxies on their cosmic environment. We do find a significant increase in the average contribution of neighbouring groups to the lensing profile in increasingly dense cosmic environments. We show, however, that the observed effect can be entirely attributed to the galaxy density at much smaller scales (within 4 Mpc/h), which is correlated with the density of the cosmic environments. Within our current uncertainties we find no direct dependence of galaxy halo mass on their cosmic environment.

Galaxy shapes are not randomly oriented, rather they are statistically aligned in a way that can depend on formation environment, history and galaxy type. Studying the alignment of galaxies can therefore deliver important information about the physics of galaxy formation and evolution as well as the growth of structure in the Universe. In this review paper we summarise key measurements of galaxy alignments, divided by galaxy type, scale and environment. We also cover the statistics and formalism necessary to understand the observations in the literature. With the emergence of weak gravitational lensing as a precision probe of cosmology, galaxy alignments have taken on an added importance because they can mimic cosmic shear, the effect of gravitational lensing by large-scale structure on observed galaxy shapes. This makes galaxy alignments, commonly referred to as intrinsic alignments, an important systematic effect in weak lensing studies. We quantify the impact of intrinsic alignments on cosmic shear surveys and finish by reviewing practical mitigation techniques which attempt to remove contamination by intrinsic alignments.

We study the evolution of the luminosity-to-halo mass relation of luminous red galaxies (LRGs). We selected a sample of 52 000 LOWZ and CMASS LRGs from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) SDSS-DR10 in the similar to 450 deg(2) that overlaps with imaging data from the second Red-sequence Cluster Survey (RCS2), grouped them into bins of absolute magnitude and redshift and measured their weak-lensing signals. The source redshift distribution has a median of 0.7, which allowed us to study the lensing signal as a function of lens redshift. We interpreted the lensing signal using a halo model, from which we obtained the halo masses as well as the normalisations of the mass-concentration relations. The concentration of haloes that host LRGs is consistent with dark-matter-only simulations once we allow for miscentering or satellites in the modelling. The slope of the luminosity-to-halo mass relation has a typical value of 1.4 and does not change with redshift, but we find evidence for a change in amplitude: the average halo mass of LOWZ galaxies increases by 25(-14)(+16)% between z = 0.36 and 0.22 to an average value of (6.43 +/- 0.52) x 10(13) h(70)(-1) M-circle dot. If we extend the redshift range using the CMASS galaxies and assume that they are the progenitors of the LOWZ sample, the average mass of LRGs increases by 80(-28)(+39)% between z = 0.6 and 0.2.

We report results for the alignments of galaxies in the EAGLE and cosmo-OWLS hydrodynamical cosmological simulations as a function of galaxy separation (-1 <= log(10)(r/[h(-1) Mpc]) <= 2) and halo mass (10.7 <= log(10)(M-200/[h(-1) M-circle dot]) <= 15). We focus on two classes of alignments: the orientations of galaxies with respect to either the directions to, or the orientations of, surrounding galaxies. We find that the strength of the alignment is a strongly decreasing function of the distance between galaxies. For galaxies hosted by the most massive haloes in our simulations the alignment can remain significant up to similar to 100 Mpc. Galaxies hosted by more massive haloes show stronger alignment. At a fixed halo mass, more aspherical or prolate galaxies exhibit stronger alignments. The spatial distribution of satellites is anisotropic and significantly aligned with the major axis of the main host halo. The major axes of satellite galaxies, when all stars are considered, are preferentially aligned towards the centre of the main host halo. The predicted projected direction-orientation alignment, epsilon(g)+(r(p)), is in broad agreement with recent observations. We find that the orientation-orientation alignment is weaker than the orientation-direction alignment on all scales. Overall, the strength of galaxy alignments depends strongly on the subset of stars that are used to measure the orientations of galaxies and it is always weaker than the alignment of dark matter haloes. Thus, alignment models that use halo orientation as a direct proxy for galaxy orientation overestimate the impact of intrinsic galaxy alignments.

Masses of clusters of galaxies from weak gravitational lensing analyses of ever larger samples are increasingly used as the reference to which baryonic scaling relations are compared. In this paper we revisit the analysis of a sample of 50 clusters studied as part of the Canadian Cluster Comparison Project. We examine the key sources of systematic error in cluster masses. We quantify the robustness of our shape measurements and calibrate our algorithm empirically using extensive image simulations. The source redshift distribution is revised using the latest state-of-the-art photometric redshift catalogs that include new deep near-infrared observations. Nonetheless we find that the uncertainty in the determination of photometric redshifts is the largest source of systematic error for our mass estimates. We use our updated masses to determine b, the bias in the hydrostatic mass, for the clusters detected by Planck. Our results suggest 1-b=0.76+-0.05(stat)}+-0.06(syst)}, which does not resolve the tension with the measurements from the primary cosmic microwave background.

We report the alignment and shape of dark matter, stellar, and hot gas distributions in the EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments) and cosmo-OWLS(Over-Whelmingly Large Simulations) simulations. The combination of these state-of-the-art hydrodynamical cosmological simulations enables us to span four orders of magnitude in halo mass (11 <= log(10)(M-200/[h(-1)M(circle dot)]) <= 15), a wide radial range (-2.3 <= log(10)(r/[h(-1) Mpc]) <= 1.3) and redshifts 0 <= z <= 1. The shape parameters of the dark matter, stellar and hot gas distributions follow qualitatively similar trends: they become more aspherical (and triaxial) with increasing halo mass, radius, and redshift. We measure the misalignment of the baryonic components (hot gas and stars) of galaxies with their host halo as a function of halo mass, radius, redshift, and galaxy type (centrals versus satellites and early-versus late-type). Overall, galaxies align well with the local distribution of the total (mostly dark) matter. However, the stellar distributions on galactic scales exhibit a median misalignment of about 45-50 deg with respect to their host haloes. This misalignment is reduced to 25-30 deg in the most massive haloes (13 <= log(10)(M-200/[h(-1) M-circle dot]) <= 15). Half of the disc galaxies in the EAGLE simulations have a misalignment angle with respect to their host haloes larger than 40 deg. We present fitting functions and tabulated values for the probability distribution of galaxy-halo misalignment to enable a straightforward inclusion of our results into models of galaxy formations based on purely collisionless N-body simulations.

The Kilo-Degree Survey is an optical wide-field survey designed to map the matter distribution in the Universe using weak gravitational lensing. In this paper, we use these data to measure the density profiles and masses of a sample of similar to 1400 spectroscopically identified galaxy groups and clusters from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We detect a highly significant signal (signal-to-noise-ratio similar to 120), allowing us to study the properties of dark matter haloes over one and a half order of magnitude in mass, from M similar to 10(13)-10(14.5) h(-1) M-circle dot. We interpret the results for various subsamples of groups using a halo model framework which accounts for the mis-centring of the brightest cluster galaxy (used as the tracer of the group centre) with respect to the centre of the group's dark matter halo. We find that the density profiles of the haloes are well described by an NFW profile with concentrations that agree with predictions from numerical simulations. In addition, we constrain scaling relations between the mass and a number of observable group properties. We find that the mass scales with the total r-band luminosity as a power law with slope 1.16 +/- 0.13 (1 sigma) and with the group velocity dispersion as a power law with slope 1.89 +/- 0.27 (1 sigma). Finally, we demonstrate the potential of weak lensing studies of groups to discriminate between models of baryonic feedback at group scales by comparing our results with the predictions from the Cosmo-OverWhelmingly Large Simulations project, ruling out models without AGN feedback.

We use the first 100 deg(2) of overlap between the Kilo-Degree Survey and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey to determine the average galaxy halo mass of similar to 10 000 spectroscopically confirmed satellite galaxies in massive (M > 10(13) h(-1) M-circle dot) galaxy groups. Separating the sample as a function of projected distance to the group centre, we jointly model the satellites and their host groups with Navarro-Frenk-White density profiles, fully accounting for the data covariance. The probed satellite galaxies in these groups have total masses log < M-sub/(h(-1) M-circle dot)> approximate to 11.7-12.2 consistent across group-centric distance within the errorbars. Given their typical stellar masses, log < M-*,M-sat/(h(-2) M-circle dot)) similar to 10.5, such total masses imply stellar mass fractions of (M-*,M-sat)/(M-sub) approximate to 0.04 h(-1). The average subhalo hosting these satellite galaxies has a mass M-sub similar to 0.015M(host) independent of host halo mass, in broad agreement with the expectations of structure formation in a A cold dark matter universe.

The alignments between galaxies, their underlying matter structures, and the cosmic web constitute vital ingredients for a comprehensive understanding of gravity, the nature of matter, and structure formation in the Universe. We provide an overview on the state of the art in the study of these alignment processes and their observational signatures, aimed at a non-specialist audience. The development of the field over the past one hundred years is briefly reviewed. We also discuss the impact of galaxy alignments on measurements of weak gravitational lensing, and discuss avenues for making theoretical and observational progress over the coming decade.

The shapes of galaxies are not randomly oriented on the sky. During the galaxy formation and evolution process, environment has a strong influence, as tidal gravitational fields in the large-scale structure tend to align nearby galaxies. Additionally, events such as galaxy mergers affect the relative alignments of both the shapes and angular momenta of galaxies throughout their history. These "intrinsic galaxy alignments" are known to exist, but are still poorly understood. This review will offer a pedagogical introduction to the current theories that describe intrinsic galaxy alignments, including the apparent difference in intrinsic alignment between early- and late-type galaxies and the latest efforts to model them analytically. It will then describe the ongoing efforts to simulate intrinsic alignments using both N-body and hydrodynamic simulations. Due to the relative youth of this field, there is still much to be done to understand intrinsic galaxy alignments and this review summarises the current state of the field, providing a solid basis for future work.

Torques acting on galaxies lead to physical alignments, but the resulting ellipticity correlations are difficult to predict. As they constitute a major contaminant for cosmic shear studies, it is important to constrain the intrinsic alignment signal observationally. We measured the alignments of satellite galaxies within 90 massive galaxy clusters in the redshift range 0.05<z<0.55 and quantified their impact on the cosmic shear signal. We combined a sample of 38,104 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts with high-quality data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. We used phase-space information to select 14,576 cluster members, 14,250 of which have shape measurements and measured three different types of alignment: the radial alignment of satellite galaxies toward the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), the common orientations of satellite galaxies and BCGs, and the radial alignments of satellites with each other. Residual systematic effects are much smaller than the statistical uncertainties. We detect no galaxy alignment of any kind out to at least 3 r200. The signal is consistent with zero for both blue and red galaxies, bright and faint ones, and also for subsamples of clusters based on redshift, dynamical mass, and dynamical state. These conclusions are unchanged if we expand the sample with bright cluster members from the red sequence. We augment our constraints with those from the literature to estimate the importance of the intrinsic alignments of satellites compared to those of central galaxies, for which the alignments are described by the linear alignment model. Comparison of the alignment signals to the expected uncertainties of current surveys such as the Kilo-Degree Survey suggests that the linear alignment model is an adequate treatment of intrinsic alignments, but it is not clear whether this will be the case for larger surveys.

We have presented a method that uses observations of galaxies to simultaneously constrain cosmological parameters, and the galaxy-dark matter connection (aka halo occupation statistics). The latter describes how galaxies are distributed over dark matter haloes, and is an imprint of the poorly understood physics of galaxy formation. A generic problem of using galaxies to constrain cosmology is that galaxies are a biased tracer of the mass distribution, and this bias is generally unknown. The great advantage of simultaneously constraining cosmology and halo occupation statistics is that this effectively allows cosmological constraints marginalized over the uncertainties regarding galaxy bias. We have used a combination of the analytical halo model and the conditional luminosity function to describe the galaxy-dark matter connection, which we have used to model the abundance, clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing properties of the galaxy population. We have used a Fisher matrix analysis to gauge the complementarity of these different observables, and presented some preliminary results from an analysis based on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our results are complementary to and perfectly consistent with the results from the WMAP mission, strengthening the case for a true 'concordance' cosmology.

We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to investigate how the inclusion of physical processes relevant to galaxy formation (star formation, metal-line cooling, stellar winds, supernovae and feedback from active galactic nuclei, AGN) change the properties of haloes, over four orders of magnitude in mass. We find that gas expulsion and the associated dark matter (DM) expansion induced by supernova-driven winds are important for haloes with masses M-200 a parts per thousand(2) 10(13) M-aS (TM), lowering their masses by up to 20 per cent relative to a DM-only model. AGN feedback, which is required to prevent overcooling, has a significant impact on halo masses all the way up to cluster scales (M-200 similar to 10(15) M-aS (TM)). Baryon physics changes the total mass profiles of haloes out to several times the virial radius, a modification that cannot be captured by a change in the halo concentration. The decrease in the total halo mass causes a decrease in the halo mass function of about 20 per cent. This effect can have important consequences for the abundance matching technique as well as for most semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. We provide analytic fitting formulae, derived from simulations that reproduce the observed baryon fractions, to correct halo masses and mass functions from DM-only simulations. The effect of baryon physics (AGN feedback in particular) on cluster number counts is about as large as changing the cosmology from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7 to Planck, even when a moderately high-mass limit of M-500 a parts per thousand 10(14) M-aS (TM) is adopted. Thus, for precision cosmology the effects of baryons must be accounted for.