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BCGs，是丰富星系团中最明亮的成员，并且被怀疑在其中心藏有最大质量的黑洞。精确测量这些黑洞的质量是混淆的距离，和低表面亮度，他们的主机星系。该项目的主要研究者和共同主要研究者将在8米Gemini-North和10米Keck望远镜上使用激光引导星星自适应光学系统和积分场摄谱仪，以前所未有的分辨率获得9个BCG中恒星运动场的二维图。然后，使用轨道叠加模型，他们将拟合数据并限制假定的中央黑暗物体的质量。这项研究的结果将阐明星系和黑洞在质量尺度高端通过合并的共同演化，并将对黑洞驱动的能量注入（反馈）在星系团中的作用产生重要影响。一名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。