2021
A&A Colloquium: Anna-Christina Eilers (MIT)
3:30–4:30 pm ERC 161
The Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe
The existence of luminous quasars hosting supermassive black holes within the first billion years of cosmic history challenges our understanding of black hole growth. An important piece of the puzzle is the lifetime of quasars - the time that galaxies shine as active quasars and during which the bulk of the black hole growth occurs - but to date its value remains uncertain by several orders of magnitude. I will present a new method to obtain constraints on the lifetime of quasars based on the sizes of ionized regions around quasars known as proximity zones. These proximity zones act as a “quasar clock” and enable us to study the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies from a new perspective. Surprisingly, our results indicate that black holes might be able to grow several orders of magnitude faster than previously thought, which provides a potential solution to the long-standing puzzle of the rapid black hole assembly in the early universe. I will further show how future observations with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will enable new insights into galaxy-quasar co-evolution across cosmic time.
Open group seminar: Christoph Welling (Friedrich-Alexander University)
2:00–3:00 pm ERC 401
Christoph Welling (Friedrich-Alexander University) “Finding EeV neutrinos with RNO-G”
Open group seminar: Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann (Vanderbilt University)
1:00–2:00 pm ERC 401
Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann (Vanderbilt University)“Developing an Accurate Probe of the Galaxy-Halo Connection”
Broader Horizons: Ali Vanderveld, Senior Staff Data Scientist at Wayfair
4:00–5:00 pm ERC 401
Astrophysics to Data Science
Ali Vanderveld (Senior Staff Data Scientist at Wayfair)
Astronomy & Astrophysics Virtual Graduate Admissions Information Session
Through November 19, 2021 online
The Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics invites you to join us in a virtual workshop regarding the graduate admissions process on Monday, November 18 and Tuesday, November 19, 2021 CDT.
KICP colloquium: Satya Gontcho A Gontcho (LBNL)
3:30–4:30 pm ERC 161
Satya Gontcho A Gontcho (LBNL) “Status of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument”
Astro Tuesday Series: Anowar Shajib & Adina Feinstein
12:00–1:00 pm ERC 401
This Tuesday (November 16th) we will return to the 2-speaker lunch science talks format. Our speakers this coming Tuesday are Anowar Shajib and Adina Feinstein.
KICP seminar: Morgane Konig (MIT & Dartmouth College)
12:00–1:00 pm ERC 401
Morgane Konig (MIT & Dartmouth College) “A theory of Hybrid monodromy inflation with two fields”
A&A Colloquium: Erik Shirokoff (UChicago)
3:30–4:30 pm ERC 161
New instruments for mm-wavelength line intensity mapping
Line intensity mapping uses the spectral lines from atoms and molecules in unresolved galaxies to build a 3D map of the high redshift universe. It will complement and extend studies of large scale structure and future CMB instruments. It will also provide a unique window into the history of star formation from the epoch of reionization to the period of peak star formation. To realize these goals, a new class of instrument is required: integral field unit spectrometers with hundreds to thousands of densely packed spectroscopic pixels. I’ll discuss the progress toward this goal, including the near-future pathfinder instruments SuperSpec and SPT-SLIM, as well as new approaches to extend on-chip spectroscopy to higher resolving powers and higher frequencies.