PHYS SEMINAR:Exploring Galaxy Cluster Evolution at Subparsec...
Guest: Ayşegül Tümer
Title: Exploring Galaxy Cluster Evolution at Subparsec to Megaparsec Scales
Date/Time: May 20, 2024 13:40
Location: FENS G035
Abstract: Galaxy clusters are the largest (~Mpc) and the most massive (~1014 — 1015 Msolar) virialized objects in the universe embedded in the deep potential well of dark matter (DM) halos. Galaxy clusters host hundreds of galaxies surrounded in an extremely hot (~107 — 108 K) and tenuous (~10-5 —10-1 cm-3) plasma, i.e., the intracluster medium (ICM). The giga-years-long evolution of these structures are intimately linked to the dynamics of their constituents (supermassive black hole activity, stellar feedback, galaxy evolution) as well as the dynamics arising from the mergers of galaxy clusters themselves (shocks, turbulence, non-thermal processes).Yet, how these mechanisms shape galaxy clusters is not well understood. The ICM, which primarily shines in the X-ray regime, is the reservoir that keeps a record of the past dynamical activity due to the DM potential. Therefore, X-ray studies of galaxy clusters hold immense potential to unravel the choreography of physics acting at a millionfold different physical scales. In this talk, I will present my research on probing galaxy clusters from the central active galactic nuclei (<parsec) to the intercluster filaments (>megaparsec) using X-ray data and I will share my academic journey leading up to my involvements in the state-of-the-art X-ray elescope mission XRISM and what the future holds for X-ray Astronomy.
Bio:Ayşegül Tümer is an observational X-ray Astrophysicist. Her work focuses on the large scale structure formation and evolution in the universe and the assessment of the characteristics of X-ray telescopes. She was born and raised in Istanbul and she used the internet for the first time to search for a contact e-mail from NASA. She has never worked for NASA but almost exclusively with them through her involvement in Chandra, NuSTAR, and XRISM X-ray missions,made possible by her postdoctoral supervisors at The University of Utah and MIT. She received her Physics joint Masters and PhD diploma in 2019 from Bogazici University, in collaboration with the University of Rome. She worked at the University of Utah as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Daniel Wik and became interested in how X-ray telescopes actually work. She has been continuing her research at MIT Kavli as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Marshall Bautz, Michael McDonald and Eric Miller. Through he appointment at MIT Kavli, she has become a part of the XRISM calibration team and extended her research to SPT-SZ collaboration. She is extremely excited about the latest developments in Turkiye's space exploration initiatives and she is looking forward to merging her national and international astrophysics communities through this academic appointment at Sabancı University.