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Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ISSN 0066-4146 · Annual Reviews · 13 articles in the index
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Quasars and the Intergalactic Medium at Cosmic Dawn
Quasars at cosmic dawn provide powerful probes of the formation and growth of the earliest supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the Universe, their connections to galaxy and structure formation, and the evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at the epoch of reionization (EoR). Hundreds of…
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Tidal Disruption Events
The concept of stars being tidally ripped apart and consumed by a massive black hole (MBH) lurking in the center of a galaxy first captivated theorists in the late 1970s. The observational evidence for these rare but illuminating phenomena for probing otherwise dormant MBHs first emerged in…
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Wave Dark Matter
We review the physics and phenomenology of wave dark matter: a bosonic dark matter candidate lighter than about 30 eV. Such particles have a de Broglie wavelength exceeding the average interparticle separation in a galaxy like the Milky Way and are, thus, well described as a set of classical waves…
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The Evolution of the Star-Forming Interstellar Medium Across Cosmic Time
Over the past decade, increasingly robust estimates of the dense molecular gas content in galaxy populations between redshift z = 0 and the peak of cosmic galaxy/star formation ( z ∼ 1–3) have become available. This rapid progress has been possible due to the advent of powerful ground- and…
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Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
We describe ongoing searches for intermediate-mass black holes with M BH ≈ 10–10 5 M ⊙ . We review a range of search mechanisms, both dynamical and those that rely on accretion signatures. We find the following conclusions: ▪ Dynamical and accretion signatures alike point to a high fraction of 10 9…
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The Assembly of the First Massive Black Holes
The existence of ∼10 9 M ⊙ supermassive black holes (SMBHs) within the first billion years of the Universe has stimulated numerous ideas for the prompt formation and rapid growth of black holes (BHs) in the early Universe. Here, we review ways in which the seeds of massive BHs may have first…
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Observations of Protoplanetary Disk Structures
The disks that orbit young stars are the essential conduits and reservoirs of material for star and planet formation. Their structures, meaning the spatial variations of the disk physical conditions, reflect the underlying mechanisms that drive those formation processes. Observations of the solids…
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Streams, Substructures, and the Early History of the Milky Way
The advent of the second data release of the Gaia mission, in combination with data from large spectroscopic surveys, is revolutionizing our understanding of the Galaxy. Thanks to these transformational data sets and the knowledge accumulated thus far, a new, more mature picture of the evolution of…
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Spatially Resolved Spectroscopic Properties of Low-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies
I review the spatially resolved spectroscopic properties of low-redshift star-forming galaxies (and their retired counterparts) using results from the most recent optical integral field spectroscopy galaxy surveys. First, I briefly summarize the global spectroscopic properties of these galaxies…
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Astrochemistry During the Formation of Stars
Star-forming regions show a rich and varied chemistry, including the presence of complex organic molecules—in both the cold gas distributed on large scales and the hot regions close to young stars where protoplanetary disks arise. Recent advances in observational techniques have opened new…
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The Dust Attenuation Law in Galaxies
Understanding the properties of dust attenuation curves in galaxies and the physical mechanisms that shape them are among the fundamental questions of extragalactic astrophysics, with great practical significance for deriving the physical properties of galaxies. Attenuation curves result from a…
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The Cosmic Baryon and Metal Cycles
Characterizing the relationship between stars, gas, and metals in galaxies is a critical component of understanding the cosmic baryon cycle. We compile contemporary censuses of the baryons in collapsed structures and their chemical makeup and dust content. We show the following: ▪ The mass density…
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Star-Forming Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
Ever deeper and wider look-back surveys have led to a fairly robust outline of the cosmic star-formation history, which culminated around ; this period is often nicknamed “cosmic noon.” Our knowledge about star-forming galaxies at these epochs has dramatically advanced from increasingly complete…