Colloquium by Eilat Glikman, Middlebury College
Quasar activity plays an important role in regulating how galaxies and their nuclear supermassive black holes grow and co-evolve. In this talk, I will present a population of highly luminous dust-reddened quasars that may be the key to understanding this co-evolution. Luminous quasars are thought to be ignited by major mergers between gas-rich galaxies and red quasars are among the most intrinsically-luminous quasars in the Universe representing a short-lived phase in the lifetime of a quasar, during which their energy output (feedback) irrevocably impacts their host galaxies. Broad absorption line features in the spectra of red quasars are extremely common and recent evidence has also shown that red quasars have enhanced radio emission, which may be explained by dusty, radiation-driven winds. X-ray observations show that red quasars are in a radiatively driven blow-out phase. Red quasars are thus ideal laboratories for addressing fundamental questions on the co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies as well as the physics of feedback. I will present findings from several studies that are exploring this elusive population to investigate dusty winds and outflows as forms of feedback and a possible source of radio emission.
Followed by wine and cheese.
Host: David Helfand