Timothy Heckman Colloquium Abstract (Nov 7, 2018)

Feedback and the Evolution of Galaxies and Black Holes

I will summarize our current understanding of the processes that govern the formation and co-evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes (SMBH). I will pose several of the most fundamental shortcomings of our current models and then examine how they may be addressed by the effects of the feedback provided by energy and momentum supplied by massive stars and actively growing SMBH. My focus will be on what we have learned so far (largely from observations of the contemporary universe), and I will conclude by describing future prospects using a new generation of facilities. I will do my best to give a "non-specialist" talk that minimizes jargon and stresses the basic underlying physical processes.

Technical Talk: Galactic Winds: Phenomenology, Physics, and Implications

I will discuss the nature of galactic winds driven by the energy and momentum supplied by populations of massive stars. I will give an overview of the basic physical processes that lead to the formation and propagation of galactic winds. I will then give a “guided tour” of the multi-phase galactic wind driven by the prototypical starburst galaxy M 82. Next, I will describe how the basic parameters of winds can be inferred from the data and summarize the systematic dependences of these parameters on the key properties of the galaxy and the starburst. I will then discuss how well these systematic properties compare to assumptions used in cosmological simulations of galaxy evolution.  Finally, I will describe the implications of winds for galaxy evolution, specifically in the context their impact on the circum-galactic medium and on the chemical evolution of galaxies.