Substructure in dark matter haloes: towards a model of the abundance and spatial distribution of subclumps

I develop a model for the abundance and spatial distribution of dark matter subclumps. The model shows that subclumps of massive parent haloes formed at earlier times than subclumps of the same mass in lower mass parents; equivalently, haloes in dense regions at a given time formed earlier than haloes of the same mass in less dense regions. This may provide the basis for interpreting recent observations which indicate that the stellar populations of the most massive elliptical galaxies are also the oldest, and that star formation rates are lower in dense environments.