The dynamics of rotating triaxial galaxies with massive black holes

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。Vecli博士将研究三轴星系或具有棒盘的星系中的恒星运动，并在其中心拥有超大质量黑洞。 大多数椭圆星系是三轴的，大约一半的盘星系是棒星系。 尽管如此，它们中心黑洞的质量通常是通过将轴对称（甚至球形）星系模型与观测数据拟合来确定的。 Vavani博士将首先研究模型三轴势中的轨道，找到规则轨道的基本频率，将它们分类到它们的主要家族中，并绘制出轨道混乱的区域。 然后，她将在旋转三轴和棒星系的引力N体模拟中对粒子轨道使用相同的技术，无论是否有中心黑洞。 最后，她将改善她目前的轴对称史瓦西代码，包括三轴和数字旋转。 该代码生成引力自洽模型，将用于估计观测良好的附近星系中心的黑洞质量。一名本科生将参加这项研究。 预期的结果具有广泛的科学意义，因为星系中心黑洞的质量估计用于限制活动星系核辐射能量的效率，并估计引力波实验应该检测到的超大质量双黑洞合并的频率。 Vecli博士将领导一个针对她所在系的女研究生和本科生的讨论和指导小组。 她还将与密歇根大学自然历史博物馆和天文馆合作，为K-12学生开展实践天文学项目。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr Valluri will study stellar motions in galaxies that are triaxial or have barred disks, and harbor supermassive black holes at their centers. Most elliptical galaxies are triaxial, and roughly half of all disk galaxies are barred. Despite this, the masses of their central black holes are generally determined by fitting axisymmetric (or even spherical) galaxy models to the observational data. Dr Valluri will start by investigating orbits in model triaxial potentials, finding the underlying frequencies of the regular orbits to classify them into their major families, and mapping out the regions where orbits are chaotic. She will then use the same technique on the orbits of particles in gravitational N-body simulations of rotating triaxial and barred galaxies, both with and without a central black hole. Finally, she will improve her current axisymmetric Schwarzschild code to include triaxiality and figure rotation. This code generates gravitationally self-consistent models that will be used to estimate the masses of the black holes at the centers of well-observed nearby galaxies. An undergraduate student will participate in the research. The anticipated results are of broad scientific interest, since mass estimates for galaxy-center black holes are used to constrain the efficiency with which active galactic nuclei radiate energy, and to estimate how often the merger of binary supermassive black holes should be detectable by gravitational wave experiments. Dr Valluri will lead a discussion and mentoring group for women graduate students and undergraduate students in her department. She will also carry out hands-on astronomy projects for K-12 students in collaboration with the University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History and Planetarium.