The growth of galaxies and supermassive black holes

星系通过一系列不同的过程，包括与其他星系的相互作用和更孤立的原位过程，在数十亿年的时间里建立了复杂的结构。绝大多数星系还拥有一个中心超大质量黑洞，这些黑洞通过将它们的质量与其所在星系的性质相关联的过程来共生和增长。关于这些过程的一些最基本的问题还没有得到回答，例如：星系合并对星系和超大质量黑洞的共同进化有多重要？超大质量黑洞可以通过什么样的非合并过程积累足够的物质来维持我们观测到的光度范围？星系中正常物质的详细物理过程对黑洞-星系关联的本质是关键的，还是这种过程仅仅取决于由暗物质晕的大小和形状驱动的更基本的性质？有了最新一代的望远镜和高分辨率的宇宙学模型，我们开始回答这些问题。在博士项目期间对这些主题的研究将涉及多波长、多通道观测数据的数据简化和分析，包括来自哈勃太空望远镜的光谱和图像。一个关键目标是通过星系形态指标分离和分析黑洞和星系生长的“无合并”通道。这将涉及大型数据集的实际操作，以及使用和编写代码。学生将加入多个成熟的、富有成效的社区，如银河动物园项目。

Galaxies build up their complex structures over billions of years via a diverse set of processes, including interactions with other galaxies and more solitary in-situ processes. The vast majority of galaxies also host a central supermassive black hole, and these black holes accrete and grow via processes that correlate their masses with the properties of their host galaxies. Some of the most fundamental questions about these processes are not yet answered, such as: how important are galaxy mergers to the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes? By what non-merger processes can a supermassive black hole accrete enough material to sustain the observed range of luminosities at which we observe them? Are the detailed physical processes of normal matter in galaxies critical to the nature of black hole-galaxy correlations, or do such processes depend solely on more fundamental properties driven by the size and shape of the dark matter halo? With the latest generation of telescopes and high-resolution cosmological models, we are starting to answer these questions. Investigation of these topics during a PhD project will involve data reduction and analysis of multiwavelength, multi-channel observational data, including spectroscopy and images from the Hubble Space Telescope. A key aim is to isolate and analyse the "merger-free" channel of black hole and galaxy growth, via galaxy morphological indicators. This will involve hands-on work with large datasets as well as working with and writing code. The student will join multiple established, productive communities, such as the Galaxy Zoo project.