Active Galactic Nuclei and the "Grand Unification" with Galaxies

本项目是对活动星系核(AGN)及其宿主星系的研究，目的是了解活动星系核与星系之间的联系。我们将使用恒星速度色散和亚弧秒成像技术，将宿主星系与非活动星系进行比较。不同的估计中心黑洞质量的方法(包括混响映射)将被比较，这项工作将使目前的样本大小增加一个数量级。质量吸积率将从活动星系核的光谱中估计出来，并将研究这些速率和黑洞质量与活动星系核其他性质的关系。这应该允许构建一幅黑洞和星系相结合的自我一致的演化图景。这项研究涉及学生研究，构成了一篇研究生论文的主要部分，由于公众对黑洞的兴趣仍然很高，因此可以预期结果将对非专业观众产生显著影响。

AST-0407295UrryThis project is an investigation of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies, with the aim of understanding the AGN-galaxy connection. Host galaxies will be compared with their non-active counterparts, using stellar velocity dispersions and sub-arcsecond imaging. Different methods of estimating central black hole mass (including reverberation mapping) will be compared, in work that should increase the present sample size by an order of magnitude. Mass accretion rates will be estimated from AGN spectra, and the relation of these rates and of the black hole mass to other AGN properties will be studied. This should allow the construction of a self-consistent evolutionary picture for black holes and galaxies combined.The study involves student research, comprising the major part of one graduate thesis, and since the public interest in black holes remains high, the results can be expected to have noticeable impact on a non-specialist audience.