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Astronomy Tea Talk

Monday, April 25, 2022
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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Online Event
Gas Flows in Massive Galaxies at Cosmic Noon with Integral Field Spectroscopy
Andrey Vayner, Johns Hopkins University,

Feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBHs) has become a standard part of massive galaxy formation and evolution models, while accretion of gas from the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is one of the dominant ways to provide fuel for future star formation. Understanding the balance between gas accretion from the CGM and the feedback process is crucial to understanding the formation and evolution of massive galaxies in the early Universe. I will present my ongoing study of the resolved CGM with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) and high spatial resolution observations on galactic scales of the molecular and ionized ISM with ALMA and Keck-OSIRIS to better understand the gas flows through the quasar host galaxies and the CGM. I will present my recent work on extremely red quasars (ERQs), a newly discovered active galactic nuclei (AGN) class showcasing the fastest moving outflows of any AGN sample to date, with velocities reaching several thousand km/s with outflow extent reaching galactic scales. Next, I will highlight our Cycle 1 JWST GO and ERS programs to study the kinematics and dynamics of the resolved ionized ISM through optical and infrared emission lines, warm molecular gas, and dust traced through polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in this unique sample. I will conclude by highlighting our software package called Q3Dfit, designed for JWST IFS observations, capable of performing point-spread-function subtraction and modeling the spatially resolved quasar host galaxy by fitting the continuum and emission lines from 1 - 28 μm simultaneously. Q3Dfit will be a state-of-the-art tool for high contrast extragalactic science analysis with JWST and will open a window for discoveries at infrared wavelengths.

For more information, please contact Dana Simard by email at [email protected] or visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zYBv_IqFp2f9huYQA1VSw.