Physics

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The Physics department is committed to education and research in physics, the study of the fundamental universal laws that govern the behavior of matter and energy, and the exploration of the consequences and applications of those laws. Our department is widely known for its excellent teaching and student mentoring. Our department plays an important role in the university’s Core Curriculum. We have strong academic programs with several options for undergraduate physics majors, leading to the B.S. degree, as well as graduate curricula leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Our research groups span a variety of fields within physics. Our principal concentrations are in Astrophysics, Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology, Condensed Matter Physics, Lasers and Optics, Physics Education, Solar Physics, and the Space Science and Engineering Lab.

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Start date: 2021Subject: search.filters.subject.dwarf galaxies

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    Wandering Black Hole Candidates in Dwarf Galaxies at VLBI Resolution
    (American Astronomical Society, 2022-07) Sargent, Andrew J.; Johnson, Megan C.; Reines, Amy E.; Secrest, Nathan J.; van der Horst, Alexander J.; Cigan, Phil J.; Darling, Jeremy; Greene, Jenny E.
    Thirteen dwarf galaxies have recently been found to host radio-selected accreting massive black hole (MBH) candidates, some of which are “wandering” in the outskirts of their hosts. We present 9 GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of these sources at milliarcsecond resolution. Our observations have beam solid angles ∼104 times smaller than the previous Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 9 GHz, with comparable point-source sensitivities. We detect milliarcsecond-scale radio sources at the positions of the four VLA sources most distant from the photocenters of their associated dwarf galaxies. These sources have brightness temperatures of >106 K, consistent with active galactic nuclei (AGNs), but the significance of their preferential location at large distances (p-value = 0.0014) favors a background AGN interpretation. The VLBA nondetections toward the other nine galaxies indicate that the VLA sources are resolved out on scales of tens of milliarcseconds, requiring extended radio emission and lower brightness temperatures consistent with either star formation or radio lobes associated with AGN activity. We explore the star formation explanation by calculating the expected radio emission for these nine VLBA nondetections, finding that about five have VLA luminosities that are inconsistent with this scenario. Of the remaining four, two are associated with spectroscopically confirmed AGNs that are consistent with being located at their galaxy photocenters. There are therefore between five and seven wandering MBH candidates out of the 13 galaxies we observed, although we cannot rule out background AGNs for five of them with the data in hand.
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    The AGN Fraction in Dwarf Galaxies from eROSITA: First Results and Future Prospects
    (American Astronomical Society, 2021-12) Latimer, Lilikoi J.; Reines, Amy E.; Bogdan, Akos; Kraft, Ralph
    Determining the fraction of nearby dwarf galaxies hosting massive black holes (BHs) can inform our understanding of the origin of “seed” BHs at high redshift. Here we search for signatures of accreting massive BHs in a sample of dwarf galaxies (M ⋆ ≤ 3 × 109 M ⊙, z ≤ 0.15) selected from the NASA-Sloan Atlas (NSA) using X-ray observations from the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS). On average, our search is sensitive to active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in dwarf galaxies that are accreting at ≳1% of their Eddington luminosity. Of the ∼28,000 X-ray sources in eFEDS and the 495 dwarf galaxies in the NSA within the eFEDS footprint, we find six galaxies hosting possible active massive BHs. If the X-ray sources are indeed associated with the dwarf galaxies, the X-ray emission is above that expected from star formation, with X-ray source luminosities of L 0.5–8 keV ∼ 1039–40 erg s−1. Additionally, after accounting for chance alignments of background AGNs with dwarf galaxies, we estimate there are between zero and nine real associations between dwarf galaxies and X-ray sources in the eFEDS field at the 95% confidence level. From this we find an upper limit on the eFEDS-detected dwarf galaxy AGN fraction of ≤1.8%, which is broadly consistent with similar studies at other wavelengths. We extrapolate these findings from the eFEDS sky coverage to the planned eROSITA All-Sky Survey and estimate that upon completion, the all-sky survey could yield as many as ∼1350 AGN candidates in dwarf galaxies at low redshift.
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    A Chandra and HST View of WISE-selected AGN Candidates in Dwarf Galaxies
    (American Astronomical Society, 2021-06) Latimer, Lilikoi J.; Reines, Amy E.; Hainline, Kevin N.; Greene, Jenny E.; Stern, Daniel
    Reliably identifying active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in dwarf galaxies is key to understanding black hole (BH) demographics at low masses and constraining models for BH seed formation. Here we present Chandra X-ray Observatory observations of 11 dwarf galaxies that were chosen as AGN candidates using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mid-infrared (mid-IR) color–color selection. Hubble Space Telescope images are also presented for 10 of the galaxies. Based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy, six galaxies in our sample have optical evidence for hosting AGNs and five are classified as star-forming. We detect X-ray point sources with luminosities above that expected from X-ray binaries in the nuclei of five of the six galaxies with optical evidence of AGNs. However, the X-ray emission from these AGNs is generally much lower than expected based on AGN scaling relations with infrared and optical tracers. We do not find compelling evidence for AGNs in the five optically-selected star-forming galaxies despite having red mid-IR colors. Only two are detected in X-rays and their properties are consistent with stellar-mass X-ray binaries. Based on this multiwavelength study, we conclude that two-color mid-IR AGN diagnostics at the resolution of WISE cannot be used to reliably select AGNs in optically-star-forming dwarf galaxies. Future observations in the infrared with the James Webb Space Telescope offer a promising path forward.
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