Colloquium by Sarah Wellons, Wesleyan
Over the last couple of decades, our ability to accurately describe the evolution of galaxies using numerical techniques has improved tremendously, and we now have a fairly strong idea of the basic physical building blocks involved. One building block which remains complex and elusive, however, is the nature of galaxies’ physical relationship with the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) they host. Moreover, the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope has given us many more mysteries to solve regarding galaxy (and SMBH) formation in the messy and extreme physical conditions of the early Universe. In this talk, I will explore the evolution of galaxies during this early period in the Universe’s history from a theoretical perspective, focusing on what simulations can tell us about the growth and development of massive galaxy and SMBH systems. I will begin with a brief review of what we know about the physics of galaxy formation and the properties of galaxies as a function of cosmic time, then present some of my group’s recent and ongoing work with the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulation collaboration. I will discuss results related to the burstiness of star formation in very high-redshift (z>5) galaxies, their development into kinematically-mature systems by z=1, then turn to the thorny question of modeling SMBH growth and feedback. Because the fundamental physics is unresolvable, there is a tremendous (to the point of being problematic) amount of flexibility in choosing how to implement these models - how do the choices we make in modeling SMBH accretion and feedback affect predictions for star formation on galactic scales?
Cookies will be available, starting at 3:45.
Host: Greg Bryan