Uncovering the nature of dark matter with stellar streams in the Milky Way

Stars orbiting in the halo of our galaxy, the Milky Way, are a window into the distribution of dark matter. Tidally disrupting star clusters are especially valuable tracers, because in pristine conditions they produce thin stellar streams of nearly uniform density. I will present maps of stellar streams based on the latest photometric and astrometric data that reveal variations in the width and density of streams -- typical signatures of dynamical perturbation. Dynamical modeling of a perturbed stream GD-1 suggests it recently had a close encounter with a massive and dense perturber, while precise radial velocities constrain the perturber's orbit and present-day location. Known baryonic objects are unlikely perturbers based on their orbital properties, but observations permit a low-mass dark-matter subhalo as a plausible candidate. Data being delivered by big ground-based surveys of this decade (e.g., DESI, LSST) will enable such studies in hundreds of stellar streams. I will discuss how the upcoming observations can be used to measure the mass spectrum of dark-matter substructures and even identify individual substructures and their orbits in the Milky Way halo.