Prof. Allison Kirkpatrick: Probing Black Holes from the Boring to the Breathtaking

All galaxies host a supermassive black hole at their centers, at least a million times the mass of the Sun. Material falling onto these monsters can be as bright as the galaxy itself, or it may be lurking unseen behind thick blankets of dust. Some of these monsters go through growth spurts and feeding frenzies that can greatly impact their host galaxies, possibly even terminating all nearby star formation. Other supermassive black holes seem to have no impact on their hosts, passively growing and evolving while galaxies take no notice. In this talk, I will explore the breathtaking Cold Quasars, which are some of the most luminous accreting black holes in the universe, and yet, surprisingly, their host galaxies have star formation rates of 1000 Msun/yr, casting doubt on whether black hole feedback impacts star formation at all. I will discuss how Cold Quasars are an anomaly in the current understanding of quasar formation. On the other hand, I will examine the boring black holes, what kinds of galaxies they live in, and what JWST is revealing about their life cycle.