Cosmology

Abstract:

We present results from a new method of exploring the distant Universe. We use 3-D spectroscopy to sample a large cosmological volume at a time when the Universe was less than 3 billion years old to investigate the evolution of star-formation activity. Within this study we also discovered a high redshift type-II quasar which would not have been identified with imaging studies alone. This highlights the crucial role that integral-field spectroscopy may play in surveying the distant Universe in the future.

Abstract:

There is growing interest in the possible link between the growth of supermassive black holes and the effect of feedback from them on galaxy growth. There are three areas of significant uncertainty: (i) the physics of the feedback; (ii) the prevalence and effectiveness of feedback; (iii) the link between the growth of black holes and their hosts. The 2QZ optical QSO survey indicates that luminous QSOs are relatively short-lived, and it has recently been shown that the observed bolometric luminosity density from all AGN and its evolution can be reproduced if black holes grew coevally with their galaxies, implying but not requiring a causal link between galaxy growth and black hole growth. At low redshifts there is some evidence that black hole and galaxy growth are starting to decouple.

Abstract:

We present results from our ongoing effort to understand the nature and evolution of nearby galaxies using the SAURON integral-field spectrograph. In this proceeding we focus on the study of the particular case formed by the interacting galaxies NGC 5953 and NGC 5954. We present stellar and gas kinematics of the central regions of NGC5953. We use a simple procedure to determine the age of the stellar populations in the central regions and argue that we may be witnessing the formation of a kinematically decoupled component (hereafter KDC) from cold gas being acquired during the ongoing interaction with NGC 5954.