Sgr A*, our Galaxy's supermassive black hole

Sgr A*，我们银河系的超大质量黑洞

• 批准号: 2604619
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leicester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2604619
• 关键词: Sgr; our; Galaxy; supermassive; black

Studies of Supermassive Black Holes (BH) remain at the forefront of contemporary astrophysics. BHs are synonymous with extreme gravity and physical phenomena. Their astrophysical importance lies in the fact that BHs release vast amounts of energy when they grow, strongly affecting their host galaxies. However, how these processes operate in detail is not understood. Except for one example, observations do not yet resolve the small scales on which BHs devour its food; we also lack causality information between BH outbursts and what they do to the galaxies, and how. Sgr A*, the 4 Million Solar mass BH in the centre of the Milky Way, is the unique exception. It is the closest to us laboratory of BH physics. Although presently very dim, Sgr A* went through a spectacular activity episode ~ 6 Million years ago when a massive gas cloud fell onto it. The resulting BH growth launched powerful outflows that shocked the inner Galaxy's disc, and inflated two Galaxy-scale gamma-ray emitting lobes perpendicular to the disc. In parallel to this, hundreds of young massive stars formed on surprisingly small orbits, whizzing about Sgr A* at speeds approaching a few percent of speed of light. Our group has led the way in theoretical and numerical simulations studies of Sgr A* activity, providing support to the group of 2020 Nobel prize winner R. Genzel in their work on young stars orbiting Sgr A*. During the last decade observers added one important detail to another on this unique example of BH activity. In this project we shall perform numerical simulations of Sgr A* growth and feedback. By comparing simulation results to a multitude of observational constraints we will create the most detailed yet picture of what happened in the immediate environment of our BH, and how its activity continues to reverberate through the Galaxy. The end goal of our project is to create a detailed model of Sgr A* recent (in Galaxy's terms) growth, activity, and how it affected the Galaxy on scales from a milli-parsec to many kilo-parsecs. In addition, utilising the unique quality of data for the BH in the Milky Way, we shall investigate a number of so far untested theoretical models for BH growth and feedback in external galaxies. A strong candidate for this project will be interested in theoretical astrophysics and numerical simulations. No prior high performance computing experience is expected. Both public available and in house created software will be provided.

超大质量黑洞（BH）的研究仍然处于当代天体物理学的前沿。黑洞是极端重力和物理现象的同义词。它们在天体物理学上的重要性在于，黑洞在成长时释放出大量的能量，强烈地影响着它们的宿主星系。然而，这些过程是如何详细运作的还不清楚。除了一个例子，观测还没有解决黑洞吞噬食物的小尺度;我们也缺乏黑洞爆发与它们对星系的影响之间的因果关系信息，以及如何。Sgr A*，银河系中心的400万太阳质量BH，是唯一的例外。它是离我们最近的BH物理实验室。虽然目前非常暗淡，但Sgr A* 在大约600万年前经历了一次壮观的活动，当时一个巨大的气体云落在它上面。由此产生的BH增长产生了强大的外流，震撼了银河系内部的圆盘，并使两个垂直于圆盘的银河系规模的伽马射线发射叶膨胀。与此同时，数百颗年轻的大质量恒星在令人惊讶的小轨道上形成，以接近光速百分之几的速度围绕Sgr A* 呼啸而过。我们的团队在Sgr A* 活动的理论和数值模拟研究方面处于领先地位，为2020年诺贝尔奖赢家R. Genzel在他们关于Sgr A* 的年轻恒星的研究中。在过去十年中，观察员们对波黑活动的这一独特实例补充了一个又一个重要细节。在这个项目中，我们将进行Sgr A* 增长和反馈的数值模拟。通过将模拟结果与大量的观测约束进行比较，我们将创建最详细的图像，以了解我们BH的直接环境中发生了什么，以及它的活动如何继续在银河系中产生反响。我们项目的最终目标是创建Sgr A* 最近（用银河系的术语）增长、活动以及它如何在从毫秒差距到数千秒差距的尺度上影响银河系的详细模型。此外，利用银河系中BH的独特数据质量，我们将研究一些迄今为止未经检验的理论模型BH的增长和反馈在外部星系。这个项目的一个强有力的候选人将对理论天体物理学和数值模拟感兴趣。没有高性能计算经验。将提供公共可用和内部创建的软件。