Ms. Élaine Brière Research Associate
Department of Physics
Office: Sawyer Building, Room 5305
Telephone: 613-541-6000 ext 6593
Fax: 613-541-6040
E-mail: ebriere@astro.queensu.ca
Department of Physics
Royal Military College of Canada
PO Box 17000, Station Forces
Kingston, Ontario CANADA
K7K 7B4
Queen's: Stirling Hall, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy, Office 351;
Queen's: 613-533-6000 ext 77608
Research Interests:
For the last 30 years, the cosmological Cold Dark Matter paradigm has provided physical interpretations to a variety of astronomical phenomena. However, for nearby spiral galaxies, the measured dark matter density is systematically lower than expected from numerical simulations. Moreover, there is significant uncertainty on this discrepancy because it depends on the adopted stellar mass for these objects, itself estimated using poorly constrained mass-to-light (M/L) ratios. This fact complicates the study of the dark matter distributions in these gigantic structures. My PhD project will focus on studying the dark and luminous structure of a sample of nearby spiral galaxies, with the goal of reducing the uncertainty in M/L for these objects, to better understand the role played by dark matter and the impact of a bar on its distribution.
