1	Quasars Cassandra Paul Graduate Student University of Wyoming Department of Physics and Astronomy
2	What does AGN stand for? A) Amazing Gigantic Nebula B) Anti–Gravity Numbers C) Association of Graduate Nerds D) Active Galactic Nuclei
3	AGN Massive black hole in Center of Galaxy Black hole is in a “Feeding Stage” This accretion process creates a very bright center of galaxy Jets are sometimes found in AGN, but not always
4	Graduate Test Subject Falls into a Black Hole
5	Quasars Quasars are a specific type of AGN, they are extremely bright, and they are very far away. Quasar is a funny name, how do you think astronomers came up with it?
6	History of Quasars Quasars were discovered in the early 1960’s. Astronomers first noticed these guys had a lot of light emitted in the radio bands. They looked like stars but didn’t seem to be stars… they had strange spectra* So because they looked like stars, and had radio loud spectra, they were named, Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources. (Kinda-Starlike Radio things.) Or….. Quasars! Today we are capable of actually seeing the host galaxies of quasars….
7	My Research… Quasars Post-Starburst Quasars Two different entities giving off two different spectra Stars have a different spectral shape than quasars. When we look at the host galaxy we see both star-burst and quasar
8	What’s a Starburst? (mmmm starbursts) Cartwheel Movie
9	My research… in a Nutshell Use morphology Use Spectroscopy Age date Relation to Mergers?
10	Merging Sequence
11	Interaction Evidence
12	Why do we care? Could have a role in determining the history of our own galaxy Mass of Black hole is correlated to bulge component of host galaxy Something about bh accretion correlated with star formation Black hole then galaxy Galaxy then black hole Or both together… through merger activity
13
14
15	Questions we hope to answer…. (someday) Do pre-merger systems have younger starbursts than post-merger systems? Compare SB age to host galaxy morphology Do younger stellar populations have higher accretion rates? Compare SB age to black hole accretion rates What is the relationship between, PSQs, quasars, ULIRGs, and PS galaxies? Compare numbers objects Compare relative peak existence times Look for sequence (transition objects)
16	In general what can we learn from PSQs? Starburst Characteristics Age Luminosity Mass AGN Characteristics Black Hole Mass Luminosity Accretion rate Basic Host Galaxy Characteristics Luminosity z Merging classification Companions
17	Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasars