Princeton University Thunch Talk

Low-mass galaxies are premier windows into many astrophysical processes, including dark matter on small scales, stellar feedback, and the effects of being a satellite galaxy of a massive host. However, to unravel the myriad of interrelated processes sculpting dwarf galaxies, it is critical to observe them in a range of environments. To address this, we have started the Exploration of Local VolumE Satellites (ELVES) Survey to characterize the dwarf satellites of all massive (M_Ks < -22.4 mag) hosts in the Local Volume down to dwarf luminosities of M_V<-9 mag. I will discuss early results from this survey, including new insights into the transformation of late-type dwarfs to early-type, how dwarf structure depends on environment, and the environmental dependence of the abundance of nuclear star clusters and globular clusters in dwarfs. I will also examine the use of dwarf satellite systems in constraining the stellar-to-halo mass relation and the implications for our understanding of small-scale structure formation.