Related papers: Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies w…
Roughly half of all stars reside in galaxies without significant ongoing star formation. However, galaxy formation models indicate that it is energetically challenging to suppress the cooling of gas and the formation of stars in galaxies…
Large-scale outflows driven by supermassive black holes are thought to play a fundamental role in suppressing star formation in massive galaxies. However, direct observational evidence for this hypothesis is still lacking, particularly in…
Star formation in galaxies relies on the availability of cold, dense gas, which, in turn, relies on factors internal and external to the galaxies. In order to provide a simple model for how star formation is regulated by various physical…
Virtually all massive galaxies, including our own, host central black holes ranging in mass from millions to billions of solar masses. The growth of these black holes releases vast amounts of energy that powers quasars and other weaker…
Star formation in half of massive galaxies was quenched by the time the Universe was three billion years old. Very low amounts of molecular gas appear responsible for this, at least in some cases, though morphological gas stabilization,…
As star-forming galaxies approach or exceed a stellar mass around $10^{11} M_\odot$, they are increasingly likely to be quenched in a process generically called mass quenching. Central galaxies, which are quenched via mass rather than…
Super-massive black holes, with masses larger than a million times that of the Sun, appear to inhabit the centers of all massive galaxies. Cosmologically-motivated theories of galaxy formation need feedback from these super-massive black…
The cosmic noon (z~1.5-3) marked a period of vigorous star formation for most galaxies. However, about a third of the more massive galaxies at those times were quiescent in the sense that their observed stellar populations are inconsistent…
The origin of the population of very massive stars observed within $\sim 0.4$ pc of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Centre is a mystery. Tidal forces from the black hole would likely inhibit {\it in situ} star formation whilst…
We study the build-up of the bimodal galaxy population using the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey, which provides excellent redshifts and well-sampled spectral energy distributions of ~27,000 galaxies with K<22.8 at 0.4 < z < 2.2. We first show…
We revisit previous suggestions that the heating provided by the winds of dying low-mass stars plays an important role in preventing star formation in quiescent galaxies. At the end of their asymptotic giant branch phase, intermediate and…
The mass density of massive black holes observed locally is consistent with the hard X-ray Background provided that most of the radiation produced during their growth was absorbed by surrounding gas. A simple model is proposed here for the…
The universe's biggest galaxies have both vast atmospheres and supermassive central black holes. This article reviews how those two components of a large galaxy couple and regulate the galaxy's star formation rate. Models of interactions…
Although there has been much progress in understanding how galaxies evolve, we still do not understand how and when they stop forming stars and become quiescent. We address this by applying our galaxy spectral energy distribution models,…
Detailed high-resolution observations of the innermost regions of nearby galaxies have revealed the presence of supermassive black holes1. These black holes may interact with their host galaxies by means of 'feedback' in the form of energy…
One key problem in astrophysics is understanding how and why galaxies switch off their star formation, building the quiescent population that we observe in the local Universe. From the GAMA and VIPERS surveys, we use spectroscopic indices…
The massive galaxy population above the characteristic Schechter mass M*~10^10.6 Msun contributes to about half of the total stellar mass in the local Universe. These massive galaxies usually reside in hot dark matter haloes above the…
We present a relationship between the black hole mass, stellar mass, and star formation rate of a diverse group of 91 galaxies with dynamically-measured black hole masses. For our sample of galaxies with a variety of morphologies and other…
We reexamine the systematic properties of local galaxy populations, using published surveys of star formation, structure, and gas content. After recalibrating star formation measures, we are able to reliably measure specific star formation…
We present a simple model for low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (LLAGN) feedback through winds produced by a hot accretion flow. The wind carries considerable energy and deposits it on the host galaxy at kiloparsec scales and beyond,…