Astronomy Colloquium

K. Decker French, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Temporally Resolving the Connections Between Nuclear Activity and Galaxy Evolution

The evolution of galaxies is fundamentally connected to the evolution of their central black holes. The large-scale environment of the host galaxy will affect the rate at which gas and stars can be accreted onto the central supermassive black hole. In response, accretion energy can regulate and ultimately drive the end of star formation in these host galaxies. I will present recent work using multi-wavelength observations to constrain the duty cycle of AGN activity as galaxies quench, trace the possible role of AGN feedback in quenching and quiescence, and to understand the galaxy-scale processes that drive the rate of tidal disruption events (TDEs). I will highlight the near-future possibilities with Rubin observatory and other facilities to dramatically expand our understanding of galaxy - black hole co-evolution.