A treasure trove of active galaxies and quasars in the DESI surveyRecording

by Dr Stephanie Juneau (NSF’s NOIRLab, USA)

Wednesday Apr 3, 2024, 4:00 PM → 5:30 PM Europe/Madrid

The identification and study of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is fundamental to our understanding of black hole growth as well as for a complete picture of galaxy formation and evolution. Supermassive black holes are ubiquitous in the center of galaxies, and they are thought to play an important role in the evolution of their host galaxies via energetic feedback. However, many open questions remain regarding the physical nature of their growth and feedback processes and -- from an observational point of view -- how to ensure a complete census of AGN in galaxies. Thanks to its wide area and highly-multiplexed spectroscopy (5000 spectra per pointing), the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey has surpassed all previous optical spectroscopy surveys to date, having already obtained over 30 million spectra of galaxies and quasars. This dataset presents unprecedented opportunities for both statistical population studies and for discovery of rare objects. I will present selected new results ranging from AGN identification to early DESI studies expanding our knowledge of supermassive black holes across the full mass and luminosity scales, from low-mass black holes in dwarf galaxies to the most luminous quasars. I will conclude with future directions such as the potential of machine learning approaches to reveal evolutionary trends or find outliers and rare objects.

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