PHYSICS PHD DISSERTATION DEFENSE: Emil Noordeh

Ph.D. Candidate:  Emil Noordeh
Research Advisor:  Steve Allen

Date: Monday, July 19, 2021
Time: 10:00 am
Zoom Link:  https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93476326829

Zoom Password: email mariaf67 [at] stanford.edu (mariaf67[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Title: The Evolution of Galaxy Activity in Massive Clusters

Abstract: 

The nature of galaxy evolution, from the early Universe to the present day, is intricately linked to large-scale environment: the environments of galaxies are expected to play a critical role in the development of their morphologies, star formation activity, and the activity of their central super massive black holes.

In this talk, I will first present an analysis of super massive black hole activity in a sample of galaxy clusters at intermediate redshift, where we identify a dependence of this activity on cluster mass, and I will describe our work in extending this study to higher redshift. Second, I will present the spectroscopic characterization of one of the highest redshift galaxy clusters ever discovered, existing at a lookback time of more than 10 billion years. We model the stellar population of its member galaxies and trace their formation back to the cosmic dark ages, when the Universe was only 370 million years old. Finally, I will do a deep dive into this cluster's galaxy population, which we find to be remarkably similar to that of clusters in the local universe. We identify a tremendously enhanced quiescent fraction relative to the field and find evidence for accelerated size-evolution in these quiescent galaxies.