RUI: Understanding the evolutionary behavior of and radio emission in red quasars

该项目将研究类星体如何在星系中心活跃地生长超大质量黑洞，演变并影响其宿主星系。该项目的重点将放在一类类星体上，这些类星体因嵌入尘埃环境而呈现红色。这些红色类星体释放出巨大的能量，将尘埃排出并将能量注入它们的宿主星系，影响它们的演化。红色类星体中的这种活动可能是解释为什么有些类星体发射无线电波长的光而另一些类星体则不发射的关键。这项工作将涉及米德尔伯里学院本科研究生的重大贡献。PI将开发一个观测天体物理学课程，培训学生利用米德尔伯里的校园天文台成像和光谱学。类星体和它们的宿主星系的共同演化还没有得到很好的理解，这个项目将集中在一个尘埃变红（“红色”）类星体的人口，在过渡阶段，反馈机制，这是没有得到很好的理解，占主导地位。发光类星体被认为是由富含气体的星系之间的主要合并点燃的，而这项工作中将要研究的红色类星体正处于一个涌现阶段，在此期间，它们的尘埃茧被吹走。红色类星体已经被证明具有增强的无线电发射，可能将喷流的形成与合并现象联系起来，或者暴露出这些系统中不同形式的反馈，例如尘埃辐射驱动的风。为了探索这些问题，PI将在亮度，红移和无线电发射特性的广泛范围内构建完整的红色类星体样本。 这些样本将被研究，以了解它们的无线电发射之间的差异，作为光度和红化的函数。红色类星体相对于整个类星体数量的比例将被确定，分离出它们射电辐射的差异;这一比例代表了在“爆发”阶段所花费的时间比例，这可能取决于类星体的射电性质。这项工作的执行将涉及红色类星体候选者的光度选择，大型地面望远镜设施的近红外光谱和光学光谱的光谱跟踪，以及光谱的详细分析，以确定类星体的基本属性，如红移，红化，内在光度，黑洞质量和吸积率。这项拟议研究的成果将是建造统计上完整的尘埃红化类星体样本，这些样本在辐射热和射电光度上跨越两个以上的数量级。该项目由MPS/AST和刺激竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate how quasars, which are actively growing supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies, evolve and influence their host galaxies. The focus of the project will be on a class of quasars that appear red because they are embedded in a dusty environment. These red quasars emit tremendous amounts of energy that expels the dust and injects that energy into their host galaxies, affecting their evolution. This activity in red quasars may be the key to explaining why some quasars emit light at radio wavelengths while others do not. The work will involve significant contribution from undergraduate research students at Middlebury College. The PI will develop an observational astrophysics course that will train students utilizing Middlebury's campus observatory both in imaging and spectroscopy. The co-evolution of quasars and their host galaxies is not well understood, and this project will focus on a population of dust-reddened ("red") quasars that are in a transitional phase where feedback mechanisms, which are not well understood, dominate. Luminous quasars are thought to be ignited by major mergers between gas-rich galaxies and the red quasars that will be studied in this work are in an emergent phase, during which their cocoon of dust is blown out. Red quasars have been shown to have enhanced radio emission, possibly linking the formation of jets to the merger phenomenon or exposing a different form of feedback in these systems, such as dusty radiation-driven winds. To explore these issues, the PI will construct complete samples of red quasars over a broad range in luminosity, redshift, and radio-emitting properties. These samples will be studied to understand the differences between their radio emission, as a function of luminosity and reddening. The fraction of red quasars compared to the total quasar population will be determined, separating out differences in their radio emission; this fraction represents the fraction of time spent in the "blow-out" phase, which may be different depending on the quasar's radio properties. The execution of this work will involve photometric selection of red quasar candidates, spectroscopic follow up with near-infrared and optical spectroscopy at large ground-based telescope facilities, and detailed analysis of the spectra to determine fundamental properties of the quasars such as redshift, reddening, intrinsic luminosity, black hole mass, and accretion rate. The outcome of this proposed research will be the construction of statistically complete samples of dust-reddened quasars spanning more than two orders of magnitude in bolometric and radio luminosity. This project is jointly funded by MPS/AST and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.