Physics Colloquium: The Cosmic Nursery of Black Holes and Galaxies

Prof. Sadegh Khochfar, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: With the imminent launch of the James-Webb space telescope in 2021 an unique window into the first billion years of the Universe will open.
The first billion years see galaxies growing at a rate that they will not maintain ever again during the history of the Universe, doubling in mass every few 100 million years. In addition, black holes grow to billions of solar masses from only thousands of solar masses. These observations pose significant challenges to theoretical models and simulations. In my talk I will present the current understanding of structure formation during this epoch and discuss potential solutions to some of the challenges in galaxy and black hole evolution.