Résumé / Abstract Seminaire_IAP
« Evolution of the Interstellar Gas and Black Hole Activity in Galaxies »

Stéphanie Juneau
Service Astroph. (SAp), IRFU, CEA-Saclay (Gif-sur-Yvette, France)

At early cosmic times, galaxies were globally forming stars and growing their central black holes at much higher rates relative to the current epoch. In addition to this strong evolution, there are now hints that the interstellar gas in distant galaxies had physically distinct properties relative to the gas content of normal nearby star-forming galaxies (e.g., higher density, ionization, geometry, etc). Can these differences be simply attributed to evolving star formation rates, or could they be due to a different "mode" of star formation with larger star-forming complexes and/or other factors such as a more prominent role of active galactic nuclei? The implications are important for our understanding of galaxy evolution and the assembly of their baryonic content. After reviewing our current knowledge on possible cosmic evolution of the ISM and black hole activity in galaxies, I will present new studies taking into account, for the first time, both selection effects and luminosity evolution. I will then discuss to what extent we can use nearby analogs to decipher distant galaxies, keeping in mind ongoing and future large spectroscopic galaxy surveys.
vendredi 31 janvier 2014 - 11:00
Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage