Galactic and extragalactic compact objects

我们将研究超新星(SNE)等极其致密的源，以及星系和类星体中心的超大质量黑洞环境。我们将使用新的EVLA和ALMA望远镜以及甚长基线干涉测量(VLBI)的射电技术来揭示否则将保持隐藏状态的物理过程的细节。后一种技术首先在加拿大使用，它允许我们放大紧凑的射电源，并以比哈勃太空望远镜高1万倍的分辨率拍摄图像。特别是，我们将探索第二类和Ib/c类的大规模核心塌缩近地天体，后者中的一些与伽马射线爆发有关，伽马射线爆发是宇宙中继大爆炸之后最强大的单一事件。我们将拍摄爆炸后不断扩大的废墟的电影。通过流体力学模拟，我们将详细地探索形成膨胀的SN激波阵面与从前驱恒星遗留下来的星周介质相互作用的物理参数。席卷周围气体云层的激波锋就像一台时光机，记录了几年内这颗前体恒星爆炸前数千年的表面活动历史。我们还将寻找任何脉冲星或黑洞的迹象，作为爆炸留下的中央恒星身体。我们将使用我们发展的扩展激波阵面方法(ESL)来几何地确定到SN及其宿主星系的距离，其不确定度优于10%。室女座星系团中的SN1979C是这样一个候选星系团，这样确定的距离也可能导致新的哈勃常数测定，其不确定度与其他方法相当。任何这样的新测定都是有用的，因为它可以帮助揭示宇宙的空间平坦度、真空能量的特征和暗物质等基本宇宙学问题。我们还将在附近的螺旋M81中搜索喷流，并用VLBI放大类星体的核心，并探测它们的动力学。这些研究将有助于揭示超大质量黑洞环境的天体物理学，并有助于建立一个新的基本天体参照系。

We will investigate extremely compact sources such as supernovae (SNe) and the environment of supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies and quasars. We will use the new EVLA and ALMA telescopes and the radio technique of very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to reveal details of the physical processes that otherwise would remain hidden. The latter technique, first used in Canada, allows us to zoom into compact radio sources and make images with a resolution 10,000 times better than that with the Hubble Space Telescope. In particular we will probe massive core-collapse SNe of type II and Ib/c, some of the latter related to gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful single events in the universe after the Big Bang. We will make movies of the expanding debris of the aftermath of the explosion. With hydrodynamic simulations we will probe in detail the physical parameters that shape the interaction of the expanding SN shock front with the circumstellar medium left over from the progenitor star. The shock front sweeping up the surrounding clouds of gas is like a time machine that records in a few years, in reverse, the history of the surface activity of the progenitor star thousands of years before it exploded. We will also search for any signs of a pulsar or a black hole as the central stellar corpse left over from the explosion. We will use the expanding shock-front method (ESL) developed by us to determine geometrically the distance to a SN and its host galaxy with a better than 10% uncertainty. SN 1979C in the Virgo cluster of galaxies is a candidate for which such well determined distance could also lead to a new determination of the Hubble constant with an uncertainty that is comparable to that of other methods. Any such new determination is useful since it could help to shed light on such fundamental cosmological questions as the degree of the spatial flatness of the universe, characteristics of the vacuum energy, and dark matter. We will also search for the jet in the nearby spiral M81 and zoom into the cores of quasars with VLBI and probe their dynamics. These studies will shed light on the astrophysics of the environment of a supermassive black hole and help establish a new fundamental celestial reference frame.