Black Holes Big and Small: Impact on Galaxy Evolution

           Black Holes Big and Small: Impact on Galaxy Evolution     

  Speaker: Luis Ho (KIAA/PKU)    

    Time: Friday, 3:00pm, September 19th  

  Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor    

   Abstract: Supermassive black holes (BHs) have been found in almost 100 galaxies by dynamical modeling of spatially resolved kinematics. The Hubble Space Telescope revolutionized BH research by advancing the subject from its proof-of-concept phase into quantitative studies of BH demographics. Most influential was the discovery of a tight correlation between BH mass and velocity dispersion of the bulge component of the host galaxy. Together with similar correlations with bulge luminosity and mass, this led to the widespread belief that BHs and bulges coevolve by regulating each other's growth. I present a major update to the status of this field. I will discuss (1) how BH mass correlates tightly only with classical bulges and ellipticals, (2) how the zero point and slopes of the fundamental correlations need to be revised, (3) BH mass estimates in quasars, (4) the discovery of intermediate-mass BHs in dwarf galaxies and implications for quasar seeds, (5) quasar-mode energy feedback at high redshifts, and (6) the evolution (or lack thereof) with time of the BH-host galaxy scaling relations   


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