Weighing the Most Massive Black Holes in the Local Universe

宇宙中最大的星系，即所谓的bcg，是丰富的星系团中最明亮的成员，被怀疑在它们的中心藏有最大的黑洞。要精确测量这些黑洞的质量，就得考虑到它们与宿主星系之间的距离，以及它们表面的低亮度。该项目的PI和co-PI将采用激光导星自适应光学系统和8米双子座-北和10米凯克望远镜上的积分场光谱仪，以前所未有的分辨率获得9个BCGs中恒星运动场的二维地图。然后，使用轨道叠加模型，他们将拟合数据并约束假定的中心暗天体的质量。本研究的结果将阐明星系和黑洞在高质量尺度下合并的共同演化，并将对黑洞驱动的能量注入（反馈）在星系团中的作用具有重要意义。研究生将接受前沿观测技术和恒星动力学建模方法的培训。

The largest galaxies in the universe, the so-called BCGs, are the brightest members of rich galaxy clusters, and are suspected of harboring the most massive black holes in their centers. Accurately measuring the masses of these black holes is confounded by the distances to, and the low surface brightnesses of, their host galaxies. The PI and co-PI of this project will employ laser-guide-star adaptive optics systems and integral field spectrographs on the 8-meter Gemini-North and the 10-meter Keck telescopes to obtain 2-dimensional maps of the stellar kinematic fields in 9 BCGs at unprecedented resolution. Then, using orbit superposition models, they will fit the data and constrain the masses of the putative central dark objects. The results of this study will clarify the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes by mergers at the high end of the mass scale, and will have important implications for the role of black-hole driven energy injection (feedback) in galaxy clusters. A graduate student will be trained in forefront observational techniques and stellar dynamical modeling methods.