Abstact: Current cosmology provides the initial and boundary conditions tounderstand the formation and evolution of objects across the whole structure hierarchy. I will describe a model for the coevolution of black holes, galaxies and dark matter halos in the ΛCDM cosmogony. The cosmological context of the model not only allows us to make interpretations about galaxies and black holes in individual snapshots, but also allows us to link objects to their progenitors and descendants. Results related to recent JWST observations are described.
Short bio: Houjun Mo is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He obtained his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Munich University in 1991 with the highest honor (Summa Cum Laude).He held postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (1991–1994) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1994–1995), before joining the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA) in 1995, where he became a tenured scientific staff member. He joined the University of Massachusetts as a tenured Associate Professor in 2003 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2008.
His research has been focused on galaxy formation, large-scale structure of the universe, and cosmology. He constructs models for the formation of disk galaxies, the formation and structure of dark matter halos, the connection between galaxies and dark matter halos, the structure of gaseous halos, and physical processes related to galaxy formation and evolution. He uses galaxies and galaxy systems from observations and from simulations to understand the properties of dark matter halos and the distribution of dark matter in the Universe, as well as to reconstruct the current and initial density fields for the local Universe.