Unveiling the Link Between Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxies

Tue, September 01, 2015

Feedback from Active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been proposed as an important quenching mechanism to suppress star formation in massive galaxies. We investigate the most direct form of AGN feedback – galactic outflows, in the most luminous AGN in the nearby universe. Using ALMA and Magellan observations to target molecular and ionized outflows, we find that luminous AGN can impact the dynamics and phase of the galactic medium, and confirm the complex multi-phase and multi-scaled nature of the feedback phenomenon. I end with a new imaging selection technique to find extended ionized outflows and characterize their frequency, size distribution, and luminosity dependence. This technique will open a new window for feedback studies in the era of large-scale optical imaging surveys like HSC and then LSST.