Lecturer: Dr. Edoardo Carlesi Affiliation: Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract: Near field cosmology aims at exploiting the high-quality astrophysical observations of the local Universe for cosmological pourposes. In recent years, observations Local Group (LG) of galaxies (e.g. relative to abundance and anisotropy of substructure), have been used to claim inconsistencies within the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) standard model of cosmology. However, the comparison between random-phase N-body simulations and this kind of observations is not straightforward. Constrained simulations (CSs), i.e. simulations whose output is constrained to resemble the observable Universe, provide an ideal tool to study these properties in a controlled environment. After showing that CSs are able to consistently reproduce the largest objects in our neighbourhood (local Void, Virgo supercluster); I will introduce the Local Group Factory numerical pipeline. This is a tool that allows to produce large samples of simulated LGs with the correct dynamical and environmental properties, allowing a statistical study of the simulated Local Universe. These ensembles can be used to study the connections between the LG properties and cosmology, using a Bayesian approach to derive distribution functions for the e.g. mass, velocity and merging history. To conclude, I will discuss of observations of the LG dynamics can be used to constrain models beyond Lambda Cold Dark Matter such as interacting scalar field and F(R) theories. Additional details of the upcoming Astrophysics' seminars can be found on the following link. ‏האירוע הזה כולל שיחת וידאו ב-Google Hangouts. הצטרף: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/mail.huji.ac.il/astrophysics?hceid=bWFpbC5odWppLmFjLmlsX2c0czhydDlpcmhwZzRvdGNybWIzZGFqcjdvQGdyb3VwLmNhbGVuZGFyLmdvb2dsZS5jb20.3q9u6q4l88nlf7cv0ao99a15r4&hs=121