Speaker: Helen Russell (Nottingham)

Date: Wednesday 22 May 2024

Time: 15:00

Location: Berry lecture theatre (3.21)

AGN feedback in nearby galaxy clusters

Gas accretion onto a supermassive black hole can power intense radiation, high-velocity winds and relativistic jets. Known as feedback, these high-energy processes are thought to heat and drive gas out of the surrounding galaxy to suppress star formation. Feedback is now understood to be the essential mechanism slowing massive galaxy growth at late times in the Universe and producing a correlative decline in black hole activity. The clearest evidence for feedback has emerged in nearby massive galaxies and clusters where radio jets inflate large radio bubbles, displace the surrounding hot atmosphere, and drive weak shocks, turbulence and sound waves. I will present new Chandra observations of feedback in M84, M87 and H1821+643, which is a rare example of a quasar in a galaxy cluster. I will also discuss the potential of the new X-ray observatory, XRISM, and the proposed AXIS mission.