Growing Supermassive Black Holes in a Young Universe

年轻宇宙中不断增长的超大质量黑洞

基本信息

批准号：
RGPIN-2016-04735
负责人：
Gallagher, Sarah
金额：
$ 1.97万
依托单位：
University of Western Ontario
依托单位国家：
加拿大
项目类别：
Discovery Grants Program - Individual
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
加拿大
起止时间：
2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=651445
关键词：
Growing Supermassive Black Holes Young

项目摘要

Every massive galaxy in the local universe hosts a supermassive black hole in its centre. Billions of years ago, these black holes grew as luminous quasars as gas fell into the black hole during the same era that most stars were born within these galaxies. The nature of the relationship between these two processes remains an active research topic. What is known is that large disks of in-falling gas power the quasars and can outshine the hundreds of billions of stars in their galaxies a thousand times over. With the radiation pressure from this light on gas and dust in the quasars' inner regions, these small powerhouses can launch energetic winds that impact the star-forming environment in their galaxies. The quasar phase is thus an important and dramatic event in the early evolution of every massive galaxy. Despite their tremendous luminous energies that enable them to be observed at great distances, quasars are quite small compared to their galaxies and the details of their inner structure remain elusive. I propose a diverse program to probe the quasar system on multiple scales, moving outward from the structure of the accretion disk, to the fast, ionized wind, then to the cooler, dusty wind, and finally to the host galaxy. Specifically, my science objectives are to:***(1) Develop a next-generation observing program to map the central few light years of thousands of quasars. By modelling variability of a diverse population of quasars, we will design the optimal experiments to take advantage of the exciting capabilities of large-field, multi-object spectrographs on 10-m class telescopes to advance our understanding of the inner structure of quasars.***(2) Use the wind signatures in quasar spectra to constrain the geometry of the winds. With ground-based spectroscopy and Chandra X-ray observations, we will measure the physical properties of thick winds to determine their potential to affect their host galaxies.***(3) Enhance our current model of dusty winds to predict new observations. A more sophisticated treatment of the interaction of light with the dusty wind will enable us to constrain wind geometry and physics by comparing to new results from innovative observing programs.***(4) Map star formation and gas motions in quasar host galaxies with advanced facilities. Learning about the large-scale properties of these galaxies will show us the link between building stars and growing black holes.****The quasar activity that builds supermassive black holes occurs at some point in the evolution of all massive galaxies. The comprehensive approach characterized by these four science objectives will incorporate new and archival observations and tested models to expand our understanding of black hole growth in a young universe.********

当地宇宙中的每个大型星系都在其中心设有一个超级质量的黑洞。数十亿年前，这些黑洞像天然气一样发光的类星体在这些星系中出生的同一时代落入黑洞。这两个过程之间关系的性质仍然是一个积极的研究主题。众所周知，大型气体动力的大型磁盘可以超过一千倍的星系中数千亿恒星。由于这种小型内部区域中气体和灰尘的辐射压力，这些小型强力群体可以发射充满活力的风，从而影响星系中的星形形成环境。因此，在每个大型星系的早期演变中，类星体阶段是一个重要而戏剧性的事件。尽管它们能够在很远的地方观察到它们的巨大发光能量，但与星系相比，类星体很小，并且其内部结构的细节仍然难以捉摸。我提出了一个多样化的程序，以多个尺度探测类星体系统，从积聚磁盘的结构向外移动到快速，电离的风，然后转移到较冷的，尘土飞扬的风，最后转移到宿主星系。具体来说，我的科学目标是：***（1）制定下一代观察程序，以绘制成千上万种类星体的中心几年。通过对种群种群的可变性进行建模，我们将设计最佳实验，以利用10-M类望远镜上的大型，多对象光谱仪的令人兴奋的功能，以提高我们对类星体内部结构的理解。通过基于地面的光谱和Chandra X射线观测，我们将测量厚风的物理特性，以确定它们影响其宿主星系的潜力。对光与尘土飞扬的相互作用的相互作用进行更复杂的处理将使我们能够通过比较创新观察程序的新结果来限制风力的几何形状和物理。了解这些星系的大规模特性将向我们展示建筑恒星与生长黑洞之间的联系。这四个科学目标的全面方法将结合新的和档案的观察结果和测试模型，以扩大我们对年轻宇宙中黑洞增长的理解。***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************