Closing in on the Cosmic Dawn: Quasar Growth and Reionization History at Redshift Seven

遥远的发光类星体通过宇宙再电离直接探测了最早的超大质量黑洞的诞生和宇宙黑暗时代的结束。我们将对距离超过130亿光年的大约30个类星体样本进行多波长调查。这个数据集将使我们能够研究年轻的星系和类星体如何在大爆炸后大约10亿年结束宇宙黑暗时代，以及早期黑洞的生长如何与早期星系的形成相互作用。该项目还将与亚利桑那大学的Flandrau科学中心天文馆合作，开发一个名为黑洞周的夏季项目，该项目将对教育和宣传产生广泛影响。高红移的发光类星体提供了宇宙早期超大质量黑洞和星系际介质演化的直接探测。该项目将对大约30个红移为7的类星体进行光学和远红外波长的光谱调查。这项调查将映射历史的再电离在其最活跃的阶段，并提供一个快速的黑洞增长和星系组装之间的关系，在再电离时代的第一次普查。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Distant luminous quasars directly probe the birth of the earliest supermassive black holes and the end of cosmic dark ages through cosmic reionization. We will conduct a multi-wavelength survey of a sample of about 30 quasars at distances exceeding 13 billion light years. This dataset will allow us to study how the young galaxies and quasars ended the cosmic dark ages about one billion years after the big bang, and how early black hole growth interacted with early galaxy formation. This project will also partner with the Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium at the University of Arizona to develop a summer program called Black Hole Week that will have broad impacts in education and outreach. Luminous quasars at high redshift provide direct probes of the evolution of supermassive black holes and the intergalactic medium at early cosmic time. This project will carry out a spectroscopy survey of about 30 quasars at redshift seven in optical and far-infrared wavelengths. This survey will map the history of reionization at its most active phase, and provide a first census of the relation between rapid black hole growth and galaxy assembly during the reionization era.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.