Galaxy Evolution and AGN
GALENA Research Group
An Emmy Noether Research Group at the Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut.
Research Focus
About the Group
The energy output of actively accreting supermassive black holes (active galactic nuclei, AGN) has become a critical ingredient in modern galaxy formation theories and is widely considered to be the main driver in regulating the growth of massive galaxies.
This energy typically exceeds the binding energy of a galaxy, such that even if only a few percent of that energy couples to the gas, gas may be heated and/or driven outside the galaxy which can effectively quench star formation activity. The critical role of AGN in galaxy formation was hypothesised two decades ago, but specific observational evidence of AGN-driven feedback has been surprisingly hard to come by.
The group's research focuses on finding concrete observational evidence for the self-regulation of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, on understanding the power, reach and impact of feedback processes exerted by AGN, and on the role of AGN in galaxy evolution at all cosmic epochs.
The group aims to characterise the internal structure and the multi-phase nature of AGN feedback signatures, determine outflow masses and energetics, and inventory the sources of gas excitation. To achieve these ambitious goals, data from state-of-the-art ground- and space-based telescopes are being used to determine the physical properties of AGN-driven winds and to measure how and how much gas they can remove from their host galaxies.
Specifically, the group leverages and will continue to leverage integral field unit observations, including data from the approved JWST Early Release Science program Q3D, which yield complex datasets probing spatially resolved stellar and gas kinematics and enable fundamentally new methods of investigating AGN feedback.
This group started its work in September 2020 and is funded through an Emmy Noether Grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and acknowledges support through the Daimler und Benz Stiftung, the MERAC foundation and the BMBF.
People
Team Members
Group Lead
Postdocs
Dr. Pranav Kukreti
kukreti at uni-heidelberg.de
dO
Dr. Bruno Dall'Agnol de Oliveira
dallagnololiveira at uni-heidelberg.de
LG
Dr. Lara Gatto
laragatto01 at gmail.com
PhD Students
Mr. Marco Albán, MSc
malban@uni-heidelberg.de
Project Title: Mapping AGN-driven outflows in MaNGA AGN
Master Students
Delvin Demke
qi257 at stud.uni-heidelberg.dee
Internship: Exploring the relationship between BH mass, X-ray weakness and redness of quasars using SDSS-V BHM
Kolja Reuter
kolja.reuter at stud.uni-heidelberg.de
Project Title: Searching for fossil AGN outflows
DG
Daniel Götz
daniel.goetz at stud.uni-heidelberg.de
Project Title: JWST IFU analysis of high-redshift radio galaxies
DM
Daniela Müller-Trefzer
Bachelor Students
Matthias Kuntz
matthias.kuntz@stud.uni-heidelberg.de
Internship
SH
Stella Himmelsbach
NT
Naomi Tokar
TB
Theodor Brosi
Visitors
Prof. Daniel Wik
University of Utah
vc329@uni-heidelberg.de, on sabbatical
VM
Prof. Vivek Mariappan
IIA Bengalore
vc329@uni-heidelberg.de, on sabbatical
Virginia Lenk
virginia.lenk@stud.uni-heidelberg.de
Former Group Members
- Eren Arici, BSc, now MSc student at Heidelberg University
- Julian Groth, MSc, now PhD student at Stockholm University
- Rodrigo Freitas, MSc, PhD student at Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Benjamin Beckmann, MSc
- Jelena Ritter, MSc, now PhD Student at MPA Garching
- Dr. Wuji Wang, now postdoc at Caltech / IPAC
- Virginia Lenk, BSc, now ESA intern and student in Heidelberg
- Jan Beckmann, MSc
- Yu-Ruei Wang, BSc
- Kolja Reuter, BSc, now Master student in Heidelberg
- Payel Nandi, MSc, PhD student at IAA, Bangalore
- Simon Flesch, BSc, now PhD student at MPE
- Chuanming Mao, now MSc student at MPIA Heidelberg
Updates
News
Prof. Daniel Wik from the University of Utah will spend 6 months at ARI during his sabbatical.
GALENA group hike. 13km hike and 6 paper discussions.
Dominika Wylezalek accompanies German head-of-state president Steinmeier to South America as part of the German delegation representing astrophysics during a visit to the Very Large Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope.
New paper by Pranav Kukreti "Feedback from low-to-moderate luminosity radio-AGN with MaNGA" Link
The GALENA group at the Heidelberg Christmas market.
New paper by Marco Alban on "Mapping AGN winds: a connection between radio-mode AGN and the AGN feedback cycle" Link
Bruno Dall'Agnol de Oliveira and Rodrigo Freitas join the GALENA group as new postdoc and PhD student respectively as part of a joint DAAD/CAPES program. Welcome!
Wuji Wang defends his PhD thesis as the first PhD student in the GALENA group. Congratulations Wuji and good luck for your postdoc at Caltech / IPAC!
Jelena Ritter and Benjamin Beckmann conclude their Master projects. Well done!
New paper led by Caroline Bertemes on BH mass estimates with JWST in a powerful quasar at z ~ 3. Link
Dominika Wylezalek receives the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Preis by the DFG. Link
Virginia Lenk was selected as an ESA intern and will spend 6 months at ESAC in Madrid. Wuji Wang was offered a postdoctoral position at Caltech. Congratulations to both!
Delvin Ahmeti successfully defends his BSc thesis. Congratulation Delvin!
New paper led by Wuji Wang on exciting JWST data in a high-z radio-loud AGN. Powerful AGN but weak feedback?! "JWST discovers an AGN ionization cone but only weak radiatively driven feedback in a powerful z ≈ 3.5 radio-loud AGN" Link
Virginia Lenk successfully defends her BSc thesis. Congrats Virginia!
The GALENA group at the Heidelberg Christmas market.
Dr. Pranav Kukreti joins the group as a new postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Pranav!
Hike and science: GALENA group hike.
We welcome Prof. David Rupke to ARI. Dave will spend his one-year sabbatical in Heidelberg.
Jan Beckmann submits his Master thesis!
Caroline Bertemes' JWST Cycle 2 proposal is accepted! Beautiful NIRISS grism data to come soon.
Payel Nandi from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics joins our group for a 3 month long visit. Welcome Payel!
Kolja Reuter defends his BSc Thesis on the "Connection between molecular gas content and the extended narrow-line region in MaNGA-selected AGN". Congratulations Kolja!
Marco Alban's first first-author paper on "Classifying the full SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey using optical diagnostic diagrams: presentation of AGN catalogs in flexible apertures" has been accepted for publication in A&A. Congratulations Marco! Link
Simon Flesch defends his BSc Thesis on the "connection between stellar mass build-up and morphology in nearby star-forming galaxies". Congratulations Simon!
The GALENA group at Heidelberg Christmas market.
New paper by Caroline Bertemes on molecular gas depletion times and metallicity gradients. Congratulations Caroline! Link
The first JWST paper is out! Wylezalek et al. 2022 Link
Part of the group at the AGN Growth conference in Iceland. Link
Marco Alban defends his Master thesis. Congratulations Marco! He will join our group as a PhD student later that year.
New paper Wylezalek et al., MNRAS, accepted Link
Wuji Wang's first first-author paper on the "Mapping the invisible circumgalactic medium around a z ~ 4.5 radio galaxy with MUSE" has been accepted for publication in A&A. Congratulations Wuji! Link
Chuanming Mao defends his BSc Thesis on the "The 3D rest-frame UV view of high-redshift radio galaxies". Congratulations Chuanming!
ESO UVES proposal accepted!
First full in person group meeting in 3D!
Wuji Wang's JWST Cycle 1 Proposal approved. Congratulations Wuji! Link
Video Portrait about our JWST Early Release Science Project Link
The GALENA Emmy Noether Group starts its work. Link
Selected Work
Publications
JWST ERS Program Q3D: The pitfalls of virial BH mass constraints shown in a z = 3 quasar with an ultramassive host
Bertemes C., Wylezalek D. et al.
2024, A&A submitted ADS LinkJWST discovers an AGN ionization cone but only weak radiatively driven feedback in a powerful z ≈ 3.5 radio-loud AGN
Wang W., Wylezalek D. et al.
2024, A&A ADS Link3D tomography of the giant Ly α nebulae of z ≈ 3-5 radio-loud AGN
Wang W., Wylezalek D. et al.
2023, A&A in press ADS LinkClassifying the full SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey using optical diagnostic diagrams: presentation of AGN catalogs in flexible apertures
Alban M. and Wylezalek D.
2023, A&A in press ADS LinkMASCOT: molecular gas depletion times and metallicity gradients - evidence for feedback in quenching active galaxies
Bertemes C., Wylezalek D., Alban M. et al.
2023, MNRAS ADS LinkFirst results from the JWST Early Release Science Program Q3D: Turbulent times in the life of a z ∼ 3 extremely red quasar revealed by NIRSpec IFU
Wylezalek D., Vayner A., Rupke D.S.N. et al.
2022b, ApJL ADS LinkMASCOT - An ESO-ARO legacy survey of molecular gas in nearby SDSS-MaNGA galaxies: I. First data release, and global and resolved relations between H2 and stellar content
Wylezalek D., Cicone C., Belfiore F., Bertemes C. et al.
2022a, MNRAS ADS LinkMapping the invisible circumgalactic medium around a z ~ 4.5 radio galaxy with MUSE
Wuji Wang, Dominika Wylezalek, Carlos De Breuck, Joël Vernet, Andrew Humphrey, Montserrat Villar Martín, Matthew Lehnert, Sthabile Kolwa
2021, A&A ADS Link