Giovedi' 31 Marzo ore 16:00 (Aula Consiglio)

Speaker: Claudio Grillo (Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching)

Title: Dark matter in massive early-type galaxies

Abstract: Strong gravitational lensing has greatly advanced our 
understanding of the mechanisms that rule the formation and evolution 
of early-type galaxies. The power of this tool has proved to be even 
stronger when combined with other diagnostics, such as stellar 
population synthesis modeling. Within this framework, I will first 
generalize the results coming from strong gravitational lensing studies 
on the dark matter content in massive early-type galaxies to a 
statistically significant sample of massive early-type non-lens galaxies 
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I will provide observational evidence 
of the most plausible origin of the tilt of the Fundamental Plane and on 
the importance of specific merging and feedback processes in driving the
structural evolution of these galaxies. I will then present a strong
gravitational lensing analysis performed in a system in which the lenses 
are two massive early-type galaxies, members of a group. I will 
concentrate on the luminous and dark mass decomposition and on effects 
of the overdense environment in the determination of the mass assembly 
of these galaxies.