Coevolution of Black Holes and Galaxies - 9780521141567

This book was originally published in 2004. Black holes are among the most mysterious objects in the Universe. Weighing up to several billion suns, massive black holes have long been suspected to be the central powerhouses of energetic phenomena such as quasars. Recent advances in astronomy have not only provided spectacular proof of this long-standing paradigm, but have revealed the unexpected result that far from being rare, exotic beasts, they inhabit the center of virtually all large galaxies. Candidate black holes have been identified in increasingly large numbers of galaxies, both inactive and active, to the point where statistical studies are now possible. Recent work has highlighted the close connection between the formation, growth, and evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. This volume contains the invited lectures from an international symposium that was held to explore this exciting theme. With contributions from leading authorities in the field with diverse but interrelated observational and theoretical expertise, this is a valuable review for professional astronomers and graduate students.

This series of four books celebrates the Centennial of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and is based on a set of four special symposia held by the Observatories in Pasadena. Each symposium explored an astronomical topic of major historical and current interest at the observatories, and each resulting book contains a set of comprehensive, authoritative review articles by leading experts in the field.