The many lives of AGN: from super-massive black holes to host galaxy colours and luminosities

I use a detailed self-consistent model of galaxy formation and the Millennium Run LCDM N-body simulation to explore the evolution of the galaxy population, including super-massive black hole growth, in a cosmological context. Motivated by observations of local cooling flow systems I propose two modes of AGN activity, the merger driven high energy 'quasar' mode and the quiescent low energy 'radio' mode. I focus on the effect that 'radio' AGN feedback has on cooling flows in massive systems, and discuss the impact that such cooling suppression has on the final galaxy properties. This becomes important for both the build up of mass on the red sequence and the field population as a whole.