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Collaborative Research: Advancing Measurements of Supermassive Black Holes with Triaxial Stellar-Dynamical Models

合作研究：利用三轴恒星动力学模型推进超大质量黑洞的测量

基本信息

批准号：
2206219
负责人：
Jonelle Walsh
金额：
$ 37.76万
依托单位：
Texas A&M University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2206219&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Advancing Measurements Supermassive

项目摘要

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are fundamental components of galaxies. Discovering a SMBH requires both exquisite observational datasets and extensive numerical modeling. Over 30 years of research effort have produced about 100 SMBH masses in nearby galaxies. The local SMBH census, however, is still highly incomplete above a few billion solar masses. Moreover, only a handful of studies have made direct comparisons of SMBH masses obtained using the motions of stars and using the motion of gas or under different modeling assumptions. When this important check was performed, it was common to find disagreements of a factor of two or more. The research team will make major advances modeling stellar motions. They will apply this tool to uncover a new population of massive SMBHs in the Universe and to make direct comparisons of SMBH mass measurements determined using stars and gas. The program will improve the census of local SMBHs and our understanding of how SMBHs and galaxies grow over time. The project further benefits society by giving research opportunities and career mentoring to high school and college students from diverse backgrounds. The students will be immersed in research during the summer. They will work closely with the principal investigators and their teams on projects involving the detailed study of SMBHs and nearby galaxies.The research team will populate and expand the sparse upper-end of the correlations between SMBH and host galaxies, as well as identify and investigate possible discrepancies in SMBH masses resulting from stellar-dynamical modeling assumptions (axisymmetric and triaxial shapes) and from different dynamical tracers (stars and molecular gas). They will exploit the exciting recent opportunities afforded by our newly revised triaxial orbit modeling code, highly sensitive integral-field spectrographs on large telescopes, and ALMA-based gas-dynamical SMBH mass measurements. They will apply our triaxial code and develop a modern parameter search strategy to enable efficient grid-free sampling of high-dimensional parameter space and rapid convergence to best-fit models. They will then apply this technique to two galaxy samples observed with integral field spectrographs on the Keck and Gemini telescopes: giant elliptical galaxies with large, diffuse stellar cores and early-type galaxies with existing molecular gas-dynamical SMBH masses. The program will advance triaxial orbit modeling from a rarity to a standard technique, double the number of known ultra-massive SMBHs in the mass range of ten billion suns, provide critical assessment of the two main dynamical SMBH mass measurement methods, and enable the study of galaxy intrinsic shapes and stellar orbital distributions.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.

超大质量黑洞（SMBH）是星系的基本组成部分。发现SMBH需要精细的观测数据集和广泛的数值建模。经过30多年的研究，在附近星系中产生了大约100个SMBH质量。然而，当地的SMBH普查在几十亿太阳质量以上仍然是非常不完整的。此外，只有少数研究直接比较了使用恒星运动和使用气体运动或在不同建模假设下获得的SMBH质量。在进行这一重要的检查时，经常会发现两个或两个以上因素的不一致。研究小组将在模拟恒星运动方面取得重大进展。他们将应用这个工具来发现宇宙中新的大质量SMBH种群，并直接比较使用恒星和气体确定的SMBH质量测量。该计划将改善对当地SMBH的普查，以及我们对SMBH和星系如何随时间增长的理解。该项目通过为来自不同背景的高中生和大学生提供研究机会和职业指导，进一步造福社会。学生们将在暑假期间潜心研究.他们将与主要研究人员及其团队密切合作，开展涉及SMBH和附近星系详细研究的项目。研究团队将填充和扩展SMBH与宿主星系之间相关性的稀疏上端，同时也要识别和研究由于恒星动力学模型假设而导致的SMBH质量的可能差异（轴对称和三轴形状）和来自不同动力学示踪剂（恒星和分子气体）的粒子。他们将利用我们新修订的三轴轨道建模代码，大型望远镜上的高灵敏度积分场光谱仪和基于ALMA的气体动力学SMBH质量测量所提供的令人兴奋的近期机会。他们将应用我们的三轴代码并开发现代参数搜索策略，以实现高维参数空间的有效无网格采样和快速收敛到最佳拟合模型。然后，他们将把这种技术应用于两个星系样本观察与Keck和双子座望远镜的积分场摄谱仪：巨大的椭圆星系与大，弥漫的恒星核心和早期类型的星系与现有的分子气体动力学SMBH质量。该计划将推进三轴轨道建模从罕见到标准技术，使质量范围为100亿个太阳的已知超大质量SMBH的数量增加一倍，对两种主要的动态SMBH质量测量方法进行关键评估，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。