Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Astrophysics Colloquium

Title：The Birth of Supermassive Black Holes at Cosmic Dawn

Speaker: Luis Ho (KIAA, Peking University）

Time：3:00 pm Apr.21th (Monday)

Tencent Meeting：638-469-504 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Abstract：

Supermassive black holes are ubiquitous in the nearby Universe. Their lifecycle is thought to be closely linked with the evolution of galaxies. How and when did these mysterious objects form? What were the first seeds? How did they grow quickly enough to power high-redshift quasars? And how precisely do black holes co-evolve with galaxies? I will summarize the demographics of supermassive and intermediate-mass black holes in the local Universe, their connection to galaxies, and recent discoveries made with the JWST that offer surprising, new insights into the earliest phases of black hole growth and their impact on galaxy evolution during the first billion years after the Big Bang.

CV：

Luis Ho is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University. Educated at Harvard and UC Berkeley, he was previously a staff member at the Carnegie Observatories. Ho uses multiwavelength observations to study galaxy formation, supermassive black holes, accretion physics, and related high-energy phenomena. He has published over 800 papers with nearly 80,000 citations, serves as Deputy Editor of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and sits on numerous advisory boards. He was elected Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (2022) and Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023).

Koushare link to the recorded presentation