Dominika Król (Harvard Smithonian CfA)
One of the crucial parameters characterizing the interstellar medium (ISM) is its metallicity, which is associated with the chemical evolution of a galaxy’s stellar populations. However, stellar feedback is only part of the story. The extent to which active galactic nuclei (AGN) influence the chemical evolution of their hosts remains an open question. In my talk, I will present spatially resolved metallicity (log(O/H)) maps for Mrk 573, a Compton-thick AGN. By applying theoretical metallicity diagnostics tailored to AGN-driven emission to Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, we probe the metallicity out to ~1 kpc scales, with tens-of-parsecs resolution across the ionization bicone. We find significant metallicity enhancement in AGN-dominated regions, with oxygen abundances reaching up to ~3xSolar, strongly correlated with the Seyfert/LINER Index, defined as the distance of a point from the Seyfert/LINER division line in the S-BPT diagram. Metallicity enrichment traces trace the VLA 6~cm jet/radio lobe emission. This, together with the lack of evidence for star formation in the bi-cone region, suggests that the enrichment originates from metals transported from the nuclear AGN region by winds, outflows, or jets. I will discuss the possible sources and implications of this metal enrichment.
Martin Solar (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
Core-collapse supernovae are very energetic explosions that have a significant impact in the interstellar medium within galaxies. However, it is not well understood how progenitors of core-collapse supernovae form, evolve, and explode. In this talk, I plan to constrain the core-collapse supernova progenitor properties studying their star formation efficiency (or molecular gas depletion time) environments. In summary, it is found that interacting massive binaries occur in regions of intense, efficient star formation rather than simply higher gas content.
Biswaraj Palit (CAMK PAN, Warsaw)
The changing-look (CL) behavior in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is characterized by dramatic fluctuations in the overall brightness of sources, leading to restructuring of circum-nuclear environments such as the inner accretion geometry, broad line region (BLR), and outflows. They offer a rare opportunity to witness accretion state transitions in real time, akin to those seen in stellar-mass X-ray binaries (XRBs). In this talk, I will present a decade long multiwavelength study of the Seyfert galaxy, which captures a complete spectral state transition--from a faint, hard X-ray phase to a bright, UV- and soft X-ray-dominated state within just $\sim$10 years. Using diagnostics like the X-ray loudness parameter ($\alpha_{\rm OX}$) and the hardness-intensity diagram (HID), we identify a critical Eddington ratio ($\lambda_{\rm Edd} \sim 0.02$) marking the onset of inner accretion flow restructuring. These findings provide strong evidence that CLAGNs trace accretion physics analogous to XRBs, scaled up in mass but compressed in time.
Kamil Bicz (University of Wrocław)
Magnetic activity in late-type stars includes a variety of phenomena driven by the interaction between convection, rotation, and magnetic field generation. Using the Sun as a reference, I will discuss how the physical processes change as we look at lower-mass, faster-rotating stars. This includes the transition from partially to fully convective stars, occurring around spectral types M3–M4. I will present results from starspot modeling of active late-type stars, comparing spot temperatures, sizes, and distributions with those of the Sun. Finally, I will focus on stellar flares, which are the most energetic expressions of magnetic activity. I will demonstrate how flare occurrence, energy, and physical parameters can differ from the values seen in the Sun.
