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Abstract:

Galaxies, termed “Cosmic Ecosystems”, consist of stars, gas, and black holes – the interaction among which dictates how a galaxy grows over time as a dynamic entity. Existing theoretical models of feedback offer a basis for how stars and black holes enrich the chemical content of the gas reservoir and/or eject it out of the galaxy through winds. Galactic outflows driven by active supermassive black holes, particularly prevalent in interacting galaxy systems, tend to stop future generations of stars from being formed and drastically alter the fate of the host when star formation is quenched. The details of this active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback process, which is thought to play a significant role in galaxy evolution across cosmic time, have been difficult to verify observationally. In this talk, I will showcase new JWST and Keck integral-field spectroscopic observations of merging galaxies that trace the movement of the multiphase gas as it traverses the galactic ecosystems, enabling a detailed understanding of this dynamic feedback process. Our early results reveal galactic-scale shocks from starburst-driven superwinds, AGN outflows driven by precessing radio jets, and decelerating winds with signatures of ionization stratification. The power of resolved studies in dissecting how systems dynamically evolve has become indispensable for understanding multiphase gas feedback from nuclear to galactic scales.