Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

The importance of active supermassive black holes in galaxy evolution

Dominika Wylezalek , Uni Heidelberg

*Pretalk starts at 1.00 PM* Abstract: How galaxies form and evolve and what processes are important at different cosmic epochs are major questions in modern astrophysics. In particular, growing supermassive black holes have turned out to be the architects of the Universe in many ways. Supermassive black holes are some of the most mysterious objects that astronomers have tried to understand ever since Karl Schwarzschild solved Einstein’s field equations in 1916. We know today that every massive galaxy in the Universe hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. The most popular example is the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Galaxy. But maybe even more intriguingly, the energy output from rapidly growing supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies (called Active Galactic Nuclei, or AGN) is now widely considered to be the main driver in regulating the evolution of galaxies in the Universe and has become a major component in modern galaxy formation theories. Their direct action can unfold on small scales near the nucleus, but they can probably also influence the development of entire galaxies. However, the impact of AGN on galaxy evolution is difficult to assess observationally since these feedback processes are strongly dependent on a multitude of factors such as cosmic epoch, spatial scales, host galaxy properties as well as accretion state of the AGN. I will present recent efforts in our group to characterise feedback processes in powerful AGN. In particular, observations with the new James Webb Space Telescope are starting to shed light on some of these important processes during the most important epochs for cosmic structure formation.

STRUCTURES Jour fixe
9 Feb 2024, 13:30
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Hybrid: Online and in Large lecture hall, Phil12

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