Australia Telescope National Facility

Powerful AGN and Their Host Galaxies Across Cosmic Time

2014 will represent 60 years since the optical identification of Cygnus A (Baade & Minkowski, 1954) as an extra-galactic source and the first powerful active galactic nucleus. Since then, powerful AGN have been identified across the electromagnetic spectrum and in galaxies from the local Universe up to z~7. As black holes and AGN have become ubiquitous, recent evidence suggests that the growth and activity of the central black hole may be closely related to the evolution of the host galaxy. Do we have a complete census of AGN activity? How do powerful AGN influence their host galaxies? Do the current unification schemes work? What are the duty cycles of radiative and kinetic AGN activity? What causes jet emission and how does that influence the host galaxy? How do powerful AGN trace the build-up of galaxies with the peaks of dark matter over-densities?

Topics to be covered include:

- powerful AGN in the local and distant Universe
- coevolution of black holes with their host galaxies
- influence of radiative and kinetic processes on stellar growth
- obscured black hole growth
- jet creation and interaction with environment
- build-up of proto-cluster environment