The co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes: the search for observational evidence of AGN feedback

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• Rebecca Smethurst
• Wednesday 11 December 2019, 14:00-15:00
• PW-SR2 (106) .

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Matteo Bianconi.

The nature of the observed co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes and the effects of AGN feedback on galaxies are two of the most important open issues in galaxy evolution. I shall present a review of galaxy quenching techniques and highlight the results of my own work using a Bayesian analysis to understand the big picture of quenching and galaxy-black hole co-evolution. In particular I shall show the results of an analysis of the morphological dependent quenching history of a population of Type 2 AGN galaxies in comparison to an inactive population. These results show Type 2 AGN host galaxies having undergone a recent (within 2 Gyr) and rapid drop in their star formation rate. AGN feedback is therefore important at least for this population of galaxies, however the diversity of this method also highlights that histories of rapid quenching cannot account fully for the quenching of all the star formation in a galaxy’s lifetime across the population of AGN host galaxies. I shall discuss how these results show that both merger-driven and non-merger processes are contributing to the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes and how this relates to galaxy environment and stellar kinematics. The availability of gas in the reservoirs of a galaxy, and its ability to be replenished, appear to be the key drivers behind this co-evolution.

This talk is part of the Astrophysics Talks Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Astrophysics Talks Series
• Bham Talks
• PW-SR2 (106)
• What's on in Physics?

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