Dark matter in the Milky Way

Understanding the nature of dark matter is one of the main outstanding problems of both astronomy and particle physics. This project will focus on the dark matter distribution within the Milky Way galaxy and its consequences for experiments and observations. We will study the formation and evolution of the first dark matter structures to form, focussing on one or more of the best motivated dark matter candidates (WIMPs, axions and primordial black holes). This project will involve a mixture of analytic and numerical calculations and comparisons to data.