William Forman, Harvard-Smithsonian

Title: Fossil Records of Outbursts From Supermassive Black Holes and the Effects of Outbursts on the Evolution of Gas Rich Galaxies, Groups, Galaxy Clusters (Video)

Abstract: Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) play key roles in galaxy and cluster evolution.  This is most clearly seen in the "fossil record" that is imprinted in the gas rich atmospheres of early type galaxies, groups, and clusters by powerful SMBH outbursts.  I will discuss the outburst history of M87 as chronicled in its radio and X-ray images and the implications of these outbursts for heating gas rich environments. In addition to discussing the outburst around M87, I will review the results of a galaxy survey that shows the effects of SMBH feedback on early type galaxies and which suggests that, at very early epochs, SMBH outbursts have truncated star formation and altered the "normal" evolution of the stellar component of galaxy bulges.  I conclude by describing a future X-ray mission, X-ray Surveyor, with sub-arcsecond angular resolution, that would allow us to study the evolution of SMBHs and hot, X-ray emitting atmospheres from high redshifts to the present.