Dwarf Galaxies from Cosmology

A local property of standard cosmology - growth of primordial perturbations - implies at least six different formation mechanisms of dwarf galaxies. A global property - the topology of the Universe - may enable direct observational study of the aging of individual galaxies. Dwarfs (by mass) can form by star formation in low mass dark matter haloes, which generally collapse early in hierarchical galaxy formation scenarios. However, several other formation paths exist, including that of low redshift, recently collapsed, low mass dark haloes containing low metallicity stellar populations. The latter possibility is purely a property of gravitational collapse --- no special mechanisms to retard star formation are required. Dwarfs by ``nurture'', as opposed to ``nature'', are also possible.