Astronomy Colloquium

Ejective Feedback and the Gas Around Galaxies

Date: Thursday, November 19th

Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Place: 4421 Sterling Hall, Talk starts at 3:45 PM

Speaker: Aleks Diamond-Stanic, UW Astronomy Grainger postdoctoral Fellow

Abstract: Our understanding of galaxy evolution centers around questions of how gas gets into galaxies, how it participates in star formation and black hole growth, and how it is returned to its galactic surroundings via feedback. On a global scale, measurements of the baryon density and the stellar mass function indicate that only 5% of baryons have formed stars by the present day, and this suggests that feedback from massive stars and supermassive black holes must prevent gas from forming stars in both low-mass and high-mass dark matter halos. I will present observational results on the geometry and kinematics of outflowing and inflowing gas around galaxies, including measurements of ejective feedback that is capable of quenching star formation by removing the cold gas supply. These results have broader implications for how gas is consumed and expelled at the centers of massive galaxies and for the limits of feedback from stellar radiation and
supernovae. I will also discuss prospects for characterizing the physical properties of gas in and around galaxies using multi-wavelength spectroscopy with existing and future facilities.

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