Galaxies as Cosmic Ecosystems

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:25070002,
            doi = {10.48660/25070002},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/25070002},
            author = {Voit, Mark},
            keywords = {Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = {Galaxies as Cosmic Ecosystems},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2025},
            month = {jul},
            note = {PIRSA:25070002 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/pirsa/25070002}}
          }
          

Abstract

Terrestrial ecosystems exhibit ecological stability: If an ecosystem is perturbed, biological feedback drives it back toward an equilibrium state, but an ecosystem does not remain stuck in its equilibrium state because it is continually perturbed. Are galaxies really similar to biological ecosystems in that regard? My talk will consider whether the atmospheres of galaxies have feedback-regulated equilibrium states and what the observational consequences of those states might be. While considering those questions I will lay out a framework for classifying how halo-scale feedback loops operate.