Weighing the Most Massive Black Holes in the Local Universe

称量本地宇宙中最大质量的黑洞

• 批准号: 1009663
• 负责人: James Graham
• 金额: $ 24.08万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1009663&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Weighing; Most; Massive; Black; Holes

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.

宇宙中最大的星系，即所谓的BCG，是丰富的星系簇中最聪明的成员，涉嫌在其中心藏有最大的黑洞。准确地测量这些黑洞的质量与它们的宿主星系的距离和低表面亮度混淆。该项目的PI和CO-PI将采用激光指南的自适应光学系统和8米的Gemini-North和10米的Keck望远镜上的积分谱仪，以在9 BCG中获得9 BCG的二维运动图。然后，使用轨道叠加模型，它们将拟合数据并限制假定的中央深色对象的质量。这项研究的结果将阐明质量尺度高端合并的星系和黑洞的共同进化，并将对黑洞驱动的能量注入（反馈）在星系簇中的作用具有重要意义。研究生将接受最前沿的观察技术和出色的动态建模方法培训。