Calibrating black hole masses and their host galaxy scaling relations with cosmic time
Final Report Abstract
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses ranging from millions to billions of times that of the Sun exist at the centres of most massive galaxies, including our Milky Way. Various scaling relations between SMBH mass (MBH ) and host galaxy properties suggest a coevolution between them. A key factor in establishing these relations may be the periods during which SMBHs accrete significant amounts of gas, a process that manifests as luminous Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). The transport of gas towards the SMBH is believed to be regulated by processes within the host galaxy, while feedback from the AGN influences the galaxy’s evolution in return. While such processes have been spatially resolved by observations in the centres of nearby low-luminosity AGNs, their low accretion rates are insufficient to grow a SMBH. To better understand the processes driving the growth of SMBHs and their host galaxies across cosmic time, it is essential to study AGNs with high specific accretion rates. In the course of this project, we demonstrated how high-spatial-resolution 3D spectroscopic observations can be used to resolve ionised gas flows in luminous unobscured AGNs. In Mrk 1044, a nearby AGN accreting at high specific rates, the ionized gas kinematics and spiral morphology suggest that star formation drives material towards the AGN. Surprisingly, the AGN does not seem to have had any impact onto the host galaxy: the emission line flux ratios are consistent with ionisation by star formation rather than AGN photoionization. As opposed to our expectation, no ionised outflows could be spatially resolved. Instead, a detailed spectroastrometric analysis revealed a compact ionized gas outflow, indicating that the AGN is in an early stage of evolution. Additionally, we used 3D spectroscopic data from a larger sample of unobscured AGNs with independently measured MBH from reverberation mapping, a technique that spatially resolves AGN structure over time and provides the most precise MBH measurements beyond the local Universe. Our contribution was to measure the host galaxy stellar kinematics as obtained from various 3D spectroscopic observations obtained with Keck/KCWI, VLT/MUSE and VLT/VIMOS. Several of the observational programs and observing runs were led by us. The new recalibration of the relation between MBH and host galaxy stellar velocity dispersion σ⋆ enabled our team to demonstrate for the first time that AGNs and quiescent galaxies follow the same underlying scaling relations, providing a baseline for measuring BH masses across cosmic time. The advancements in observational methods and analysis techniques utilised in this work offer a blueprint for studying the connection between luminous AGNs and their host galaxies. Building on these pilot study of Mrk 1044, new observations aimed at a comprehensive census of gas flows in nearby quasars will begin in October 2024, laying the groundwork for future studies. The student who carried out the work project leads these observations as the Principal Investigator, supported by an international team that was established through connections also built during this project. Furthermore, the analysis techniques developed here, particularly methods for PSF subtraction and spectroastrometry, will form a crucial pillar for the optimal exploitation of this upcoming observational program.
Publications
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 54(6), Tracing the onset of the AGN feeding-feedback cycle in the nearby NLS1 Mrk 1044
Nico Winkel, Bernd Husemann, Timothy Davis, Vardha Nicola Bennert, Françoise Combes, Massimo Gaspari, Knud Jahnke, Mainak Singha & Hans-Walter Rix
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The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS). Astronomy & Astrophysics, 663, A104.
Winkel, N.; Husemann, B.; Davis, T. A.; Smirnova-Pinchukova, I.; Bennert, V. N.; Combes, F.; Gaspari, M.; Jahnke, K.; Neumann, J.; O’Dea, C. P.; Pérez-Torres, M.; Singha, M.; Tremblay, G. R. & Rix, H. W.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 55(2), Spatially Resolved [O III] Emission-Line Kinematics of Reverberation-Mapped AGN with Keck/KCWI
R. Remigio et al.
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European Astronomical Society Meeting, A parsec-scale multi-phase outflow in the super-Eddington NLS1 Mrk 1044
N. Winkel et al.
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The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS). Astronomy & Astrophysics, 670, A3.
Winkel, N.; Husemann, B.; Singha, M.; Bennert, V. N.; Combes, F.; Davis, T. A.; Gaspari, M.; Jahnke, K.; McElroy, R.; O’Dea, C. P. & Pérez-Torres, M. A.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 56(2), Calibrating the Scaling Relations Between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies
V. N. Bennert et al.
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The Origin and Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes, Resolving the Black Hole Mass - Host Galaxy Scaling Relations in AGNs
N. Winkel et al.
