Astro Seminar Series - VIA ZOOM

Serena Perrotta is an Assistant Project Scientist at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences in the Department of Physics at the University of

California San Diego. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Astrophysics from the University of Bologna (Italy) and her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the International School for Advanced Studies (Trieste, Italy) in 2016. She is an observational astronomer, and her research interests include galaxy evolution and feedback from stars and supermassive black holes.

Title and Abstract

ERQs are the BOSS of Quasar Samples: the Highest Velocity [OIII] Quasar Outflows

In the last decade, the potential impact of galaxy-scale outflows driven by quasars on their environment has become widely recognized. Quasars provide radiative feedback in the form of pressure and photo heating and have been increasingly invoked by popular evolution models to regulate both the star formation in the host galaxies and the accretion of material onto the central supermassive black holes.

In this talk, I will discuss Extremely Red Quasars (ERQs), a remarkable population of heavily-reddened quasars at redshift z ~ 2-3 with exotic physical conditions. Our new NIR observations show that ERQs routinely exhibit [OIII]4959,5007 emission lines with the broadest and most blueshifted profiles ever reported, with widths and blue-shifted wings reaching ~6000 km/s. The energy released by ERQs has the potential to profoundly affect the evolution of host galaxies. ERQs are candidates to be young objects in a transition stage between dusty starbursts and unobscured blue quasars: the perfect laboratory where to study powerful outflows through their peculiar emission lines. 

Would you like to join this Zoom seminar?  Please email WCA.