Evolution of Galaxies and Central Black Holes: Feeding and Feedback

10-14 August 2009
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It is now widely recognized that nuclear activity is an important ingredient in shaping the evolution of galaxies. With the advent of techniques for estimating AGN black hole masses, even at large redshifts, and the availability of large quasar samples over a broad range of redshifts and selected at wavelengths ranging from the radio to the X-ray, the field has undergone transformational change. A major focus has become observational and theoretical investigation of nuclear activity in the context of the galactic environment, which can be described in terms of "feeding" and "feedback". AGN feeding is tightly correlated with redshift-dependent star formation in the host galaxy. AGN feedback, in the form of relativistic jets, massive winds, and intense radiation, has been invoked to solve a broad range of problems that arise in Cold Dark Matter-based models of galaxy formation: setting the critical mass scale for galaxies, regulating cooling in clusters, and shutting down star formation. Such feedback, feeding, and their mutual interaction might possibly account for the tight relationship between galactic bulge mass and central black hole mass.

The purpose of the symposium was to bring together researchers, both theorists and observers, from different specializations to better define the current global landscape and to motivate new lines of research. The timing of this symposium was propitious: HST was expected to be in its first full cycle after SM4 refurbishment, and ALMA, JWST, and LSST will be on the near-term horizon.

Scientific Program

• Session 1. The first galaxies and black holes
• Session 2. Quasar and supermassive black hole demographics
• Session 3. Multi-wavelength properties of AGN and their hosts
• Session 4. Black hole masses, scaling relationships, and their evolution
• Session 5. Accretion and feeding
• Session 6. Outflows and feedback
• Session 7. The Big Picture: Large-scale effects of feedback on galaxies and their environment

Invited Speakers

Keynote Speaker

• T. Heckman

Review Talks

• M. Elvis
• A. Fabian
• A. King
• P. Madau
• H. Netzer
• B. M. Peterson
• R. S. Somerville

Invited Talks

• N. Arav
• R. Cid Fernandes
• S. Croom
• R. Davies
• T. Di Matteo
• D. Elbaz
• X. Fan
• L. Ferrarese
• P. Hopkins
• G. Kauffmann,
• A. Marconi
• R. Morganti
• T. Nagao
• C.-Y. Peng
• D. Proga
• G. Risaliti
• T. Storchi-Bergmann
• M. Vestergaard
• M. Volonteri

Closing Talk

• R. Blandford