Niusha Ahvazi (UC Riverside/Carnegie)

Dwarf galaxies, despite (or perhaps because of) their small masses, are puzzles that challenge prevailing cosmological models. They are the most common type of galaxy in the universe. However, basic questions around how dwarf galaxies form still remain: what are the smallest halos that can host ultra-faint dwarfs? what sets the metallicity of these galaxies? how is their abundance expected to vary with environment? How important are they for the formation of intra-cluster or intra-group light? In this talk, I will present a combined analysis of semi-analytical models - able to probe mass scales well below the limits of galaxy-forming halos - and cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to provide insights into these, and other questions central to our understanding of dwarf galaxies.