The group environment: a key to galaxy evolution and quasar activity

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The most massive nearby galaxies built up the bulk of their stars and their central supermassive black holes at a time when the Universe was a quarter to a half its current age. The coeval timing of these processes and the apparently fixed relationship between the masses of black holes and their host galaxies point towards a connection between these two phenomena. My proposed research program addresses an intriguing intersection of black hole growth and galaxy evolution by focusing on the physical processes and the galaxy group environment that link them as outlined in the three projects listed below. (1) Determining What Happens to a Quasar Host Galaxy: The motions of gas within a galaxy hosting a black hole actively growing as a quasar directly bear on the fueling process. In other words, was the quasar triggered by a dramatic merger of two gas-rich galaxies or were more subtle galaxy interactions the cause of the inflow of gas to the nucleus? (2) Understanding Quasar Feedback: Computer simulations of the dusty winds from quasars offer the potential to measure the structure and velocity of the outflows. With these two important parameters, the kinetic energy of the winds - and therefore their potential to affect their galaxy hosts - can be determined. (3) Characterizing Nuclei and Stellar Populations in Compact Group Galaxies: Compact group galaxies in the local Universe show evidence for rapid evolution from actively star forming to quiescent as the effects of even subtle galaxy interactions enhance the processing of gas through triggered star formation. Finding the ages of the stars and peering into the galaxy centres will open up the study of stellar buildup in these systems. These three projects combined form a coherent program for investigating the relationship between the growth of supermassive black holes as luminous quasars and the build-up of stars in massive galaxies, processes fostered in the group environment.