Yuanyuan Su

Assistant Professor

Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of Kentucky

Host: Gary Ferland and Tom Troland

Title: Studying galaxy clusters in multiwavelength, multiscale, and multidisciplinary

Abstract: As the largest gravitational bound systems in the Universe, galaxy clusters are one of the most important probes for testing the standard cosmological models. A typical galaxy cluster contains hundreds to thousands of member galaxies. The space between these galaxies is filled with hot and diffuse plasma -- the intracluster medium (ICM), which constitutes 90% of the baryonic mass and emits strongly in X-rays primarily through bremsstrahlung. ICM provides unique laboratories to study many astrophysical processes, such as the interaction between the hot baryons and the supermassive black hole, the growth of large scale structure, and the enrichment processes of the Universe. In this talk, I will present our recent discovery on galaxy clusters from its centers to the outskirts including the multiphase gas at the brightest cluster galaxies, bow shock in merging clusters, and the chemical composition of the ICM. Our work on active galactic nuclei in cluster member galaxies and machine learning applications will also be discussed.