Department of Astronomy 2023-2024 Colloquium Series Presents:

"The Loneliest Galaxies: Early Results from the Dwarfs In Void Environments (DIVE) Survey"

Although low-mass dwarf galaxies are useful laboratories for testing models of galaxy formation and evolution, they are especially susceptible to environmental effects. One way to untangle the effect of environment on galaxy evolution is to study galaxies located in extremely under-dense regions: cosmic voids. In this talk, I will present the Dwarfs In Void Environments (DIVE) survey, a Keck Cosmic Web Imager study targeting dwarf galaxies inside and outside local cosmic voids. The first results from DIVE probe the stellar kinematics of isolated dwarf galaxies, raising questions about the formation of stellar disks in low-mass systems. I will discuss ongoing and future prospects for this rich IFU dataset, and I will describe how IFU surveys like DIVE, in combination with simulations, are beginning to bridge the gap between resolved and integrated studies of dwarf galaxies.