Supermassive black hole driven outflows in the nearby universe
| dc.contributor.author | Singha, Mainak | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Safi-Harb, Samar (Physics and Astronomy) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Sharma, Kumar (Physics and Astronomy) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Domaratzki, Mike (University of Western Ontario) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Baum, Stefi | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | O'Dea, Christopher | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-04-05T21:20:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-04-05T21:20:02Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2023-03-30 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-03-30 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2023-03-30T17:45:23Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Physics and Astronomy | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Massive galaxies are believed to harbour supermassive black holes at their centers, which actively accrete matter and are visible as active galactic nuclei (AGN). A key breakthrough in modern astronomy was the explanation of the sharp cut-off of the galaxy luminosity function, which could not be fully explained without using models that include the energetic feedback from AGN. Consequently, the interplay between the energy released from AGN and their host galaxies has become a popular astronomical research area—now known as AGN feedback. Although AGN feedback has been studied over the last decades, there are still many unknowns. The most common route of AGN feedback is through driving superwinds or outflows, where the ambient gas could be expelled out of the AGN host galaxies. Currently, we lack a proper understanding of how these outflows quench star formation in their host galaxies. Furthermore - (i) the spatial scale on which these outflows operate, and (ii) the driver of these outflows are highly debated, which are the two issues this thesis addresses. I analyze the 1D and 3D spectroscopic data of a rich sample of radio-loud (RL) and nearby (z~0.01-0.06) radio-quiet (RQ) AGN and found that the AGN-driven outflows are usually localized to the central 1 kpc with most of the outflowing gas located at <100 pc from the supermassive black holes. But there are instances where it could be extended on several kpc scales. Whereas AGN radiation could drive these outflows in RL AGN on sub-kpc scales, radio jets are necessary to carry these to several kpc scales in our sample. In RQ AGN, AGN bolometric luminosity does not determine whether the respective AGN will launch a compact (<1 kpc) or extended (>1 kpc) outflows in our sample. Either the radio jets could launch these outflows, or the AGN duty cycle is important in determining whether the outflows will be confined to the central <1 kpc region or traverse galactic distances. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that the energetic outflows may not be necessarily extended on kpc scales and could be driven by both AGN radiation and jets. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | May 2023 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/37259 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Black holes | en_US |
| dc.title | Supermassive black hole driven outflows in the nearby universe | en_US |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | en_US |
| local.subject.manitoba | no | en_US |
| oaire.awardTitle | Faculty of Science Graduate Fellowship-Cangene | en_US |
| project.funder.identifier | https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000038 | en_US |
| project.funder.name | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | en_US |