Supermassive black holes: Engines of the Universe

Our Universe developed hierarchically: small perturbations led to stars, then galaxies, which clustered into 'galaxy-groups' and 'galaxy-clusters', regions where the galaxy density is very high and the gravitational attraction strong enough that galaxies are bound together. Such dense environments can accelerate the evolution of galaxies.

Thus, the formation of structure is intimately linked to galaxy-evolution.

Dark Matter dominates the overall matter density of the Universe, providing the backbone for structure formation, but we observe only the baryonic matter. Revealing this basic skeleton has been a triumph of the last few decades.

This project will help reveal the physics connecting galaxy and super-massive black hole evolution to the large-scale structure. Super-massive black holes are ubiquitous in the centers of massive galaxies.

They can influence galaxy properties on scales 10,000 or more times larger than their own gravitational sphere-of-influence.

How this impact is felt, over what key epochs of the Universe's evolution, and what affect this has on galaxy evolution or on the larger-scale distributions of matter in the Universe is not known. This project uses novel techniques to address fundamental questions: 1. How are super-massive black holes triggered as a function of environment? 2.

Does super-massive black hole growth couple to galaxy growth? How is energy from the SMBH dissipated?

What is the role of the host environment and what effect do the super-massive black holes have on the larger-scale environment?