Letters of Intent received in 2016

LoI 2018-1915
Galaxy Evolution and Feedback Across Cosmic Time

Topics

Formation and growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs)

Evolution of stellar populations, star formation rates and gas content in galaxies

Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei over cosmic time

Mechanisms for quenching/fueling star formation and SMBH accretion

Radiation, winds, and jets from SMBHs and impact on host galaxies

Environmental factors of feeding and feedback: hot and cold flows, mergers, gas stripping, galaxy harassment

"Radio mode" and "quasar mode" feedback and their underlying accretion models

Feedback from star formation and SNe across cosmic time

Capabilities of new future instruments to study galaxy and SMBH evolution and feedback

Rationale

The physical processes that couple the growth of supermassive black holes (SMBH) to their host galaxies - the so-called feeding and feedback processes, are now necessary ingredients in galaxy evolution models, not only regulating the growth of the galaxies but also influencing their environment. Radio jets extending to hundreds of thousands of kpc, their interaction with ambient gas producing X-ray, optical and infrared emission, relic X-ray cavities observed in galaxy clusters, outflows observed in neutral, ionized and molecular gas, are all observed manifestations of these feedback phenomena. Instruments including Gamma-ray and X-ray satellites, the Hubble Space Telescope, integral field spectrographs on 8-10m class telescopes and radio observations, including the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, have been dedicating increasing fractions of their time to observe and characterize these phenomena and constrain the relevant physical mechanisms. Integral-Field surveys such as CALIFA, MaNGA and SAMI are also providing spatially resolved studies of the stellar population properties in galaxies allowing the mapping of its formation history and the impact of galaxy wide outflows from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) on the host galaxies.

In view of the availability of new instrumentation and new surveys, a coordinated multi-wavelength observational and combined theoretical effort is key to advancement in this field. We thus plan to bring together observers from across the electromagnetic spectrum with theorists to discuss the interplay between the growth of supermassive black holes and galaxy evolution, from the earliest epochs to the present day Universe. The symposium would both continue the progress made to the present day and extend the discussion to directly address AGN and galaxy interactions at low and high redshifts.

Further detailed studies at low and high redshift will be possible with future, more powerful observatories, both on the ground (notably LSST, E-ELT, GMT, and TMT in the optical and infrared and JVLA, SKA, GMRT, LOFAR in the radio) as well as space missions (e.g., James Webb, Euclid, WFIRST, ATHENA, ATLAST, X-ray Surveyor) and we would include discussions that describe the capabilities of these missions, thus motivating future observations.

We would include a significant outreach activity in the region and would involve both local high schools and nearby universities. Our Astronomy Department at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, ~30,000 students) in Porto Alegre is an important national reference in Extragalactic Astrophysics research and a number of former PhD students have settled as young professors in other similarly large universities in the area, including Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM) and Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UfPel), that have themselves already a number of graduate students. Another strong nearby group is at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis, in our neighboring state. PhD and undergraduate students of these institutions will strongly benefit from an IAU Symposium in the south of Brazil, either participating of the Symposium or of the outreach activities. In addition, in the Bento Gonçalves town and in its close vicinity there are also other Colleges, High Schools and Universities that will be targeted for the outreach activities.

Finally, we point out that the definitive dates will be discussed some more (between now and December, when the proposal should be submitted) among the members of the SOC to avoid conflict with other meetings and important deadlines.