Title: Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Evolution

Abstract: Black holes form in the early Universe and grow to billions of solar
masses as their gravity attracts surrounding matter. This cosmic accretion
releases a huge amount of energy, which is expected to have a strong influence
on galaxy evolution - for example, potentially ionizing the interstellar gas
and thus quenching star formation. The history of black hole growth can be
traced through the detection of Active Galactic Nuclei out to very high
redshifts. Deep multiwavelength surveys reveal that most AGN are heavily
obscured and that obscuration is more common in the young Universe and in
low-luminosity AGN. By studying the host galaxies of AGN, we can investigate
the issue of feedback between growing black holes and their evolving hosts.
Perhaps unexpectedly, star formation in the local Universe appears to turn off
well before AGN reach their peak brightness. At higher redshifts the picture is
murkier but apparently different: a large number of AGN are hosted by red,
rather than green, galaxies.