Galactic Archaeology. The dwarfs that survived and perished

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent observational and simulation-based studies of Milky Way dwarf galaxies, highlighting their importance in understanding early universe conditions and galaxy formation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in observing and modeling dwarf galaxies, facilitating comparison between data and theoretical models.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of dwarf galaxy properties

Improved methods for comparing models and observations

Insights into early universe structure formation

Abstract

From the archaeological point of view, the local dwarf galaxies are unique objects in which the imprint of the conditions that shaped the early structure formation can be studied today at high resolution. Over the last decade, this new window into the high redshift Universe has started to be exploited using deep wide-field imaging, high resolution spectroscopy and cutting edge N-body and hydro-dynamical simulations. We review the recent advances in the observational studies of the Milky Way dwarf galaxies, with the aim to understand the properties of the population as a whole and to assist an objective comparison between the models and the data.