Connecting galaxy evolution and the growth of supermassive black holes

Supermassive black holes are now thought to lurk at the centres of most, if not all, galaxies but it is still unclear how these black holes form and what drives their subsequent growth over the history of the Universe. This project will focus on identifying growing black holes - seen as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) - and connecting the properties of these AGN with the evolution of the galaxies they lie in.

Galaxies follow a range of evolutionary pathways, whereby their sizes, morphologies, star formation rates, stellar populations and gas properties change over time. We will use the latest galaxy surveys, incorporating data from a wide range of facilities (including the Hubble Space Telescope and Keck Observatory) to identify galaxies at different cosmic epochs and in different evolutionary states.

We will then use multiwavelength datasets - including X-ray data (from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NASA’s recently launched NuSTAR observatory), infrared imaging, and radio data - to identify AGN within these galaxies and determine their properties (such as their luminosities, black hole accretion rates, and their level of obscuration). We will track how the levels of AGN activity depend on the galaxy properties to provide new insights into the processes fuelling and regulating black hole growth across the evolving galaxy population.