Feedback plays a pivotal role in regulating the galactic life cycle through its manifestation in shocks and turbulent gas within the galaxy and out into the circumgalactic medium. Yet, the complex interplay between outflowing winds and their host galaxy remains largely unconstrained at relevant physical scales in star-forming clouds and shocked gas clumps. The lack of direct observational measurements of small-scale properties of the multiphase interstellar medium is a big hurdle for constraining feedback prescriptions in cosmological models, prompting a systematic resolved study of extreme environments in galaxy mergers known to host these dynamic events. In this talk, I will showcase our ongoing research effort to map the full extent of the multiphase gas from the central kpc region out to tens of kpc in a sample of nearby luminous infrared galaxies from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey using JWST and Keck. Our early results reveal galactic-scale shocks from starburst-driven superwinds, massive precessing AGN outflows, and decelerating winds with signatures of ionization stratification. The power of resolved studies in dissecting how systems dynamically evolve will become indispensable for understanding multiphase feedback from nuclear to galactic scales.

Speaker: Vivian U (University of California, Irvine)

All 2024 Spring Colloquium talks are held on Wednesdays at 3:00 PM. This colloquium is hosted by STScI and will be held as an in-person and virtual event.

You may join in person at STScI’s John N. Bahcall Auditorium or virtually on STScI's Live Science Events Facebook page.

Please direct questions or comments to contact above. The 2024 Spring Colloquium Committee members are: Joel Green (STScI), Matilde Mingozzi (STScI), Nashwan Sabti (JHU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Ethan Vishniac (JHU), John Wu (STScI).