Description:

The co-evolution massive, early-type galaxies and their nuclear black holes is apparently

regulated by feedback from active galactic nuclei.  X-ray observations have shown that 

over the past 5-7 Gyr, massive galaxy evolution has been governed primarily by radio jets 

and lobes.  The Atacama Large Millimeter Array has sharpened our understanding of the 

relationships between so-called radio-mode feedback and molecular cloud formation.  

Unlike spriral galaxies  where molecular gas lies in a disk in ordered motion about the 

center of the galaxy, molecular clouds in cluster centrals likely formed in the 

updrafts of rising radio bubbles.   Less is known about molecular gas in normal giant

ellipticals.  However, trends between the thermodynamic properties of their hot 

atmospheres suggest much of their molecular gas may have condensed from hot 

atmospheres themselves.

Seminar Speaker: Brian McNamara, University of Waterloo

 Host: Tchekhovskoy

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Seminar, Colloquium