Invited review to appear in the proceedings of
"Microlensing 2000: A New Era of Microlensing Astrophysics", Cape Town,
South Africa, ASP Conf. Ser., eds. J.W. Menzies and P.D. Sackett
THE LOCAL GROUP
Eva K. Grebel
University of
Washington, Department of Astronomy, Box 351580,
Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA
Hubble Fellow
Max-Planck-Institut
für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17,
D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Abstract. Local Group galaxies such as the Milky Way, the
Magellanic Clouds and M31
are being used by a number of international collaborations to search for
microlensing events. Type and number of detections place constraints on dark
matter and the stellar populations within and along the line of sight to
these galaxies. In this review I briefly discuss
the stellar populations, evolutionary histories, and other properties
of different types of Local Group galaxies as well as
constraints on the dark matter content of these galaxies.
Particular emphasis is placed on the dwarf
companions of the spiral galaxies in the Local Group.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
- LOCAL GROUP GALAXY CONTENT AND DISTRIBUTION
- THE LOCAL GROUP SPIRALS
- STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF LOCAL GROUP DWARF
GALAXIES
- Methods and Limitations
- Old Populations
- Spatial Variations of Stellar Populations
- Differences in Gas Content
- Star Formation Histories
- Potential Evolutionary Transitions
- DARK MATTER
- Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies and Dark Matter
- Tidal Effects Rather than Dark Matter?
- Modified Newtonian Dynamics
- Implications for Microlensing
- SUMMARY
- REFERENCES
