Powering the most extreme galaxies

There is an extensive zoo of different galaxies where supermassive blackholes are growing in the centre, and around which stars are forming very vigorously. These processes are coupled to the surrounding galaxy, and both respond to, and are perhaps responsible for shaping, their evolution and environment. A large number of exciting objects of this sort have been discovered by the WISE infrared space survey, including many of the most luminous galaxies of all time.
From a range of observations all the way from X-ray to radio wavelengths, and by comparing with information from relatively easy-to-study nearby galaxies, we will test the ideas about how these most remarkably luminous objects are generated, and the processes within that control their properties and tremendously high rate of energy release, that cannot be sustained indefinitely. We anticipate focussing on the properties and processes in their interstellar media, and understanding their nature using images and spectra from the Atacama Large (Sub)millimetre Array (ALMA), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and large ground-based telescopes.