Colloquium on Dec. 22th, 2017: The Galactic Center Ecosystem

Speakers:Q. Daniel Wang(University of Massachusetts)

Venue:Physics 3514
Time:2:00 PM, Friday, 22th December

Abstract:The center of our Galaxy is the only galactic nuclear region where various stellar populations can be resolved, allowing for the study of the star formation mode and history as well as the stellar dynamics and feedback under an extreme galactic nuclear environment, characterized by the high temperature, density, turbulent velocity, and magnetic field, plus the strong tidal force. I will review various recent multiwavelength studies of the center, focusing on widefield (on scales comparable to the central molecular zone), arcsecond-resolution surveys that I am deeply involved in millimeter, near-infrared, and X-ray. These studies have led to discoveries of many unique phenomena and processes and are enabling us to map out the foreground dust extinction and to characterize the 3-D global distribution of stars and the interstellar medium. Ultimately, we will hope to address such questions as: how the extreme environment regulates the mode and effectiveness of star formation; how the stellar populations have been built up over time; and how the medium, star formation, and central supermassive black hole interplay. Answering these questions about the Galactic center ecosystem represents a critical step in understanding how other galactic nuclei work and affect the evolution of galaxies as whole.

Speaker Introduction:

Q. Daniel Wang is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1990 from Columbia University. He was awarded the ASP Robert J. Trumpler Award for Outstanding North American Ph.D Dissertation Research in Astronomy. He was then an Edwin P. Hubble postdoctoral fellow at University of Colorado and later a Lindheimer fellow at Northwestern University. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and had a recent extended stay at University of Cambridge as a Raymond and Beverley Sackler Distinguished Visiting Astronomer. He was the Siyuan Visiting Chair Professor and is now the Yixing Visiting Chair Professor in the School of Astronomy and Space Science at Nanjing University. He served on a Frontier Science Panel of US Astro 2010 - the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics and is currently serving on the executive committee of the high energy division of the American Astronomical Society. He has published 160+ research papers in refereed journals, including four in Nature and one in Science; about 50 over the last five years. His publication covers a broad range of topics: compact stars, supernova remnants, superbubbles, hot circumgalactic and intergalactic media, and hydrodynamic simulations of hot gas, as well as galactic nuclei and their environments. His current research focuses on the hot interstellar and intergalactic media, the feedback and evolution of galaxies, and galactic nuclear regions. He mainly uses radio, infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray observations to conduct these studies. He also carries out theoretical and computational studies with his students and collaborators.

Personal Homepage:

http://people.umass.edu/wqd/?_ga=2.28700540.1100028184.1513596102-826190050.1513596102