Every galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole in its center, and the masses of each are correlated over several orders of magnitude. This suggests that the mass growth of a galaxy (through star formation) is tightly coupled to the mass growth of its black hole (through accretion of gas and stars). But the physics behind this connection remains mysterious. Do star formation processes tend to efficiently funnel gas into the black hole? And do accreting black holes emit high-velocity winds which rapidly quench star formation? We will investigate the properties of ~100,000 nearby galaxies and their supermassive black holes to reveal the physical links between galaxy star formation and black hole accretion.
Mentor: Jonathan Trump, Postdoctoral Scholar