Characterizing the Early Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Gravitational-Wave Sources

描述星系、黑洞和引力波源的早期共同演化

• 批准号: 2307171
• 负责人: Laura Blecha
• 金额: $ 53.88万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307171&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Characterizing; Early; Co; evolution; Galaxies

The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already transformed our understanding of the early Universe. The discovery of rich populations of galaxies at cosmic epochs shortly after the Big Bang has challenged models for galaxy formation and evolution. Supermassive black holes (BHs), which live in galactic nuclei, have also been observed by JWST at very early epochs. These BHs are the next frontier in science with gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of spacetime); gravitational waves from close pairs of BHs may soon be detected with pulsar timing arrays and with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. However, this coming wealth of data will require robust theoretical models of these complex processes. The PIs will address key gaps in our understanding of BH and galaxy evolution in the early Universe, including systems that produce gravitational waves. Using a suite of state-of-the-art cosmological simulations, they will determine the impact of different BH evolution models on galaxy and BH properties in the early Universe. Their results will provide a transformative leap in understanding how BH formation, growth, and dynamics impact their co-evolution with galaxies, as well as the environments in which gravitational-wave sources are found. They will also expand the University of Florida (UF) Gator Computing Program (GCP) to be a residential summer program for historically excluded high school students, with additional programming that leverages the resources of the new UF Artificial Intelligence Initiative. Supermassive black holes (BHs) are fundamental components of galaxy evolution, and they are the next frontier in gravitational wave (GW) astronomy: GWs from BH binaries may soon be detected with pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) and with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In the meantime, initial results from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have already transformed our understanding of the high-redshift Universe. The coming wealth of JWST data will unveil early BH and galaxy evolution and provide crucial complements to GW observations, but their interpretation will require robust theoretical models of these complex processes. Although the highly biased population of luminous z ~ 6 quasars constrains BH formation and early growth for those massive objects, they tell us nothing about the origins of much more numerous, "ordinary" BHs. This project will address these major questions: (1) How do galaxies evolve in concert with BHs and AGN in the early Universe? (2) What are the host characteristics of inspiraling BH pairs and GW sources?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.

最近发射的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜（JWST）已经改变了我们对早期宇宙的理解。大爆炸后不久，在宇宙时期发现了丰富的星系人群，挑战了银河形成和进化的模型。 JWST在非常早期的时代也观察到了生活在银河核中的超级质量黑洞（BHS）。这些BHS是带有引力波的科学领域的下一个边界（时空织物的涟漪）；近距离对BHS的重力波很快就会用脉冲星定时阵列和激光干涉仪空间天线检测到。但是，即将到来的大量数据将需要这些复杂过程的强大理论模型。 PI将解决我们对早期宇宙中BH和Galaxy进化的理解，包括产生引力波的系统。使用一套最新的宇宙学模拟，它们将确定不同BH进化模型对早期宇宙中星系和BH特性的影响。他们的结果将在理解BH的形成，生长和动态如何影响其与星系的共同发展以及发现引力波源的环境方面有一个变革性的飞跃。他们还将扩大佛罗里达大学（UF）Gator计算计划（GCP），成为一项用于历史上排除的高中生的住宅夏季计划，并提供了其他编程，以利用新的UF人工智能计划的资源。超大黑洞（BHS）是星系进化的基本组成部分，它们是重力波（GW）天文学的下一个前沿：BH二进制文件的GWS很快可能会通过Pulsar定时阵列（PTA）和激光干扰器空间天线（LISA）检测到。同时，詹姆斯·韦伯（James Webb）太空望远镜（JWST）的初步结果已经改变了我们对高红移宇宙的理解。即将到来的JWST数据将揭示早期BH和Galaxy Evolution，并为GW观察提供了至关重要的补充，但是它们的解释将需要这些复杂过程的强大理论模型。尽管高度偏见的发光Z〜6类星体限制了这些巨大物体的BH形成和早期生长，但它们并未告诉我们有关更多“普通” BHS的起源。该项目将解决以下主要问题：（1）星系如何与早期宇宙中的BHS和AGN一起演奏？ （2）Inspiral BH对和GW资源的主机特征是什么？该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并且使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准，被认为值得通过评估来获得支持。