Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies

位于星系中心的超大质量黑洞可以被气体的吸积所推动，产生极其高能的现象（活动星系核，AGN），比如由吸积气体组成的发光热盘，以及被称为喷流的相对论性等离子体和磁场的强大流出。最近已经认识到，强大的agn驱动的外流直接影响星系的演化，射流中的动能加热星系的气体，并将其从中央凸起区域驱逐出去，并熄灭恒星的形成。这反过来又影响星系的恒星形成历史，调解宿主星系与中心超大质量黑洞之间的关系，确定最大质量星系的数量密度，并提供调节周围热气体环境热力学的基本能量来源，包括星系团的团内介质。因此，很明显，AGN反馈是塑造我们宇宙进化方式的基本过程的核心。然而，主要的不确定性仍然存在于AGN如何与形成和演化的宿主星系及其环境相互作用，以及这些相互作用的详细物理学知之甚少。拟议的研究计划的目标是详细了解强大的AGN对其环境的相互作用和影响的物理性质。我的方法是在尺寸尺度、时间尺度和环境条件的综合范围内获得AGN的多波长观测。我将研究宇宙中质量最大的星系（最亮的星系团星系）的反馈，这些星系位于星系团的核心，在那里星系团内的介质能够通过辐射气体的热能来冷却。在之前的工作中，我从一个博士生开始，我研究了最亮星团星系中的中央AGN如何能够向热的和热的气体以及冷的分子气体传递能量，并且能够向热的但冷却的气体重新提供能量，以及运输和分散较冷的恒星形成气体。然而，这一过程的物理学原理仍然知之甚少。我的小组将减少和分析最新获得的光学成像光谱和阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列数据，这些数据是关于最亮的星系团的，并将我们的结果与以前钱德拉和无线电观测的结果结合起来。这些观测将使我们能够研究冷热（分子）气体的运动学，并将在数十kpc的尺度上探索AGN反馈过程的物理学。我们的分析将利用我们小组在射电源传播理论建模、射电源与环境的相互作用以及对集群内介质的反馈影响方面的专业知识。

Super-massive black holes located in the center of a galaxy can be fueled by the accretion of gas, producing extremely energetic phenomenon (Active Galactic Nuclei, AGN) such as luminous hot disks of accreting gas and powerful outflows of relativistic plasma and magnetic fields, called jets. It has been recently recognized that powerful AGN-driven outflows directly affect the evolution of galaxies, with the kinetic energy in the jets heating the galaxy’s gas and expelling it from the central bulge regions and quenching star formation. This in turn influences galaxies’ star formation histories, mediating the relationship between host galaxy and central supermassive black hole, determining the number density of the most massive galaxies, and providing a fundamental energy source which regulates the thermodynamics of the surrounding hot gaseous environment, including the intracluster medium of galaxy clusters. Thus, it is clear that AGN feedback is at the heart of the fundamental processes which shape the way our universe evolved. However, major uncertainties remain about how AGN interact with the forming and evolving host galaxies and their environments, and the detailed physics of these interactions are poorly understood. The objective of the proposed research program is to develop a detailed understanding of the physical nature of the interactions and impacts of powerful AGN on their environments. My approach is to obtain multi-wavelength observations of AGN over a comprehensive range of size scales, time scales, and environmental conditions. I will study feedback in the most massive galaxies in the universe (the Brightest Cluster Galaxies) in the cores of clusters where the intracluster medium is able to cool via radiating the thermal energy of the gas. In previous work that began with a PhD student, I studied how the central AGN in the brightest cluster galaxy is able to impart energy to the hot and warm gas as well as the cold molecular gas and is able to both resupply energy to the hot but cooling gas as well as transport and disperse the colder star forming gas. The physics of this process, however, remains poorly understood. My group will reduce and analyze newly obtained optical imaging spectroscopy and Atacama Large Millimeter Array data on brightest cluster galaxies and combine our results with those from previous Chandra and radio observations. These observations will allow us to study the kinematics of both the warm and cold (molecular) gas and will explore the physics of the AGN feedback process on scales of tens of kpc. Our analysis will make use of our group’s expertise in theoretical modelling of radio source propagation, interaction of radio sources with their environments, and the effects of feedback on the intracluster medium.