Seminar: The Role of Super-Massive Black Holes in Galaxy Formation

A/Prof Chris Power 

ICRAR/UWA

The first test of the feeding and feedback model in a galaxy merger simulation. Credit: Chris Power.

Download the pdf poster.

There are good astrophysical reasons to believe that feedback from super-massive black holes (SMBHs) must play a fundamental role in the formation and evolution of their host galaxies. As yet, however, our understanding of how SMBHs grow and the physics of their feedback can be described as qualitative at best. In this talk I will present key results from recent analytical and numerical work modelling SMBH growth and feedback. In particular I will discuss how physical properties of the large scale accretion flow impact on SMBH growth; the competition between SMBH growth and star formation; and the precise roles SMBH and stellar feedback in shaping the M-sigma and M-Mbulge relations.