Stellar and black hole feedback with AXIS

Stellar and black hole feedback heat and disperse surrounding cold gas clouds, launching gas flows off circumnuclear and galactic disks and producing a dynamic interstellar medium. On large scales bordering the cosmic web, feedback drives enriched gas out of galaxies and groups, seeding the intergalactic medium with heavy elements. In this way, feedback shapes galaxy evolution by shutting down star formation and ultimately curtailing the growth of structure after the peak at redshift 2-3. To understand the complex interplay between gravity and feedback, we must both resolve both the key physics within galaxies and map the impact of these processes over large scales, out into the cosmic web. With arcsecond spatial resolution, large effective area and low background, AXIS will untangle the interactions of winds, radiation, jets and supernovae with the surrounding gas across the wide range of mass scales and large volumes driving galaxy evolution and trace the establishment of feedback back to the main event at cosmic noon.