Seminar by Osase Omoruyi, Princeton
Galaxies evolve through a continuous exchange of mass and energy with their surroundings. While observations and simulations both identify supermassive black hole feedback as a major driver of this exchange, they fundamentally disagree on how: cosmological simulations require powerful outflows that push gas far beyond galaxies and their halos, while observations reveal heated, uplifted gas that will likely return to the galaxy over time. Modern facilities such as ALMA, Chandra, MUSE, and JWST, each built through vast collaborative human networks, now provide unprecedented high‑resolution views of the imprints feedback leaves on the gas in and around galaxies. By directly measuring the amount of gas displaced, how star formation responds, and how activity is fueled, I will show how multi-wavelength data can place empirical limits on the extent to which black holes regulate their environments. I will then present a novel numerical framework for efficiently exploring a range of feedback models, constrained by both observations and state‑of‑the‑art simulations. As Roman and Rubin begin mapping larger volumes of the Universe in greater detail, they will reveal new, potentially unexpected galaxy populations. This combined observational and theoretical approach will help us interpret that diversity with models that connect small-scale black hole physics to large-scale galaxy evolution.
Host: Timothy Halpin-Healy