The Coevolution of Galaxies and their Supermassive Black Holes
The evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies are
intertwined, whether by a feedback loop, in which the growth of one limits
the fueling of the other, or by a simple coincidence of physical processes
affecting both systems. I will give an overview of the current
observational constraints on black hole growth and active galactic nucleus
(AGN) feedback from world-class observatories such as Keck/VLT, HST, and
ALMA. AGN-driven winds have been observed in multiple wavelength regimes,
confirming that this feedback can couple to multiple phases of the
interstellar medium (ISM): ionized, neutral, and molecular gas. However,
most examples of outflows in different phases also trace different spatial
scales in disjoint samples of galaxies. The next step to understanding how
AGN feedback affects its host galaxy (and does or does not limit star
formation) will come from spatially-matched high resolution observations of
nearby AGN that trace the ISM in its different phases. Today’s newest and
upcoming facilities are poised to provide this comparison, and will provide
key constraints on the physical prescriptions used in galaxy evolution
simulations.