A Good Hard Look at Growing Supermassive Black Holes in the Distant Universe

Speaker：Niel Brandt (Penn State Univ.)

Moderator: Prof.WANG Jianmin

Time: 10am, Oct. 21, 2016

Place:Room B326, IHEP Main Building

Abstract:

Sensitive cosmic X-ray surveys with the Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR observatories have revolutionized our ability to find and study distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the main sites of supermassive black hole growth in the Universe. The speaker will describe some of the resulting discoveries about the demographics, physics, and ecology of AGNs. Topics covered will include the utility of deep X-ray plus multiwavelength surveys for investigating distant AGNs; evolution constraints for the typical AGNs of the distant Universe; the cosmic balance of power between supermassive black holes and stars; interactions between AGNs and their hosting galaxies; and the AGN content of newly forming galaxies. The speaker will end by discussing some key outstanding questions and new observations and missions that aim to answer them.

About the speaker:

Niel Brandt has been at Penn State since 1997 and is currently a professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Brandt uses X-ray satellites, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission-Newton, and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), to study the physics, evolution, and ecology of active galaxies and other cosmic X-ray sources. He is an author of more than 440 research papers and leads a small research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. He also regularly teaches courses on high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and active galaxies.