Improving Supermassive Black Holes as Cosmic Probes

The Research Project in brief:

• Background: Massive black holes are known to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, likely through energetic `feedback' mechanisms. At present, the physical mechanisms by which black holes deposit these vast amounts of energy into their surroundings, affecting their evolution, are often poorly understood. As the black hole mass sets the scale of this energy feedback, accurate mass measurements are crucial for our ability to settle this issue. Current mass estimates of the central black hole in distant quasars are accurate to within a factor of a few. The main limitation lies in our poor knowledge of the velocity and physical structure of the gaseous region orbiting the black hole in its vicinity which we use to `weigh' the black holes by means of its motion.
  

• We will use our database of high-quality radio, optical, ultraviolet (UV), and X-ray data recently obtained with the most modern world-class telescopes to first constrain the black hole accretion properties and the nuclear source orientation and then use state-of-the-art dynamical modeling to constrain the possible geometries and velocity structures that are consistent with this extensive database, including but not limited to the spectral emission line properties. Also, we will test predictions of the specific broad line region geometry proposed by Goad, Korista, and Ruff (2012) and develop and refine a new mass determination method.

  

• Quasar samples:
  • Inclination study: ~20 quasars selected from 37 3C radio galaxies and quasars with a range of radio-core dominance. Status: Being observed with VLT/X-shooter, Swift , and the European Very Long Baseline Radio Interferometry Network (EVN) in 2014-2015
  • VLT/S-shooter spectra of quasars: archival and PI programs.
  • An SDSS quasar sample with alpha-OX measurements - ca. 180 quasars

NEWS

• 2016 Oct.: Our proposal for 114 ksec for Cycle 4 of Danish Observing time on Swift was approved!
• 2016 August: Our 2 ALMA Cycle 4 proposals were approved!
• 2016 June: Our APEX proposal (11.4 hours) was approved!
• 2016 Jan.: Our Swift Cycle 12 GO proposal was approved for 126 ksec to observe 21 of our sample quasars at redshift 2.
• 2015 Sept.: We are very pleased that Sandra Raimundo of Portugal has joined us per September 2015 as the latest member of our team. Sandra has a strong, broad background in observational studies of the stellar and gas kinematics of Active Galactic Nuclei and we look forward to working with her.
• 2015 August: We got our ALMA Cycle 3 program to revisit Mrk590 approved (15 hours in Grade A; in top 10% ranking). We are very excited about this and look forward to the data.
• 2015 August: We got our large Swift snapshot program extended with another 243ksecs for the 2015/16 season. Great news!
• 2015 June: We got our large Very Large Radio Array program of 73 hours approved! This program will to obtain VLA radio data of our subset of 10 radio-loud quasars for measurements of their gaseous contents.

Current Data Activities

• Very Large Telescope (VLT) Data: In the spring we had a VLT/X-shooter observing program accepted to observe some of our quasars with existing radio data. These data are part of the inclination study. Data are being analyzed.

  

• Danish Swift program 2014-2015-2016: In 2014 we won 300 ksec in competition to obtain snapshot optical-UV and X-ray data with the UVOT and XRT instruments (see figure to right) of 120 radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars, most of which have no prior X-ray data. Based on these observations we can for the brightest objects establish the spectral energy distributions of the emission resulting from the accretion of material onto the central supermassive black hole. For the fainter objects, we will determine the XRT X-ray count-rate which will allow us to perform deeper follow-up observations, so to establish the spectral energy distributions of these objects as well. In May 2015 we submitted a proposal for another 400 ksec to continue this program and had 243 ksec approved in August, which is enough to finish the first snapshot round of the catalogue. In October 2016, our Cycle 4 proposal for 114 ks to finish the catalog was approved!

• Swift Cycle 10 GO program: We obtained in 2014 100 ksec to observe the optical-UV-X-ray spectral energy distribution of 10 radio-loud quasars for which we also have radio data. By combining the X-ray and radio data we can establish the viewing angle of the powerful radio jet and thus also of the central accretion disk. With source inclinations at hand, we will be able to study how the observed velocity field of the gas emitting the characteristic broad emission lines change with viewing angle. We will soon have high-quality VLT/X-shooter restframe UV and optical spectra from which we can study these optical and UV broad emission lines.

• Swift Cycle 12 GO program: Our proposal for 126 ksec to observe 21 of our general quasar targets was approved in January 2016. These data will, along with the Danish Swift program contribute to building our large database of Swift restframe UV and X-ray SEDs for a large sample of redshift 2 quasars.

• European Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (EVN): We have successfully secured 20 hours on the EVN, a network of radio telescopes spread across Europe, East Asia and South Africa, to observe a sample of 15 quasars at very high angular resolutions. These data will be used in tandem with the Swift and VLT observations for the inclination studies.

• Very Large Array (VLA): We have secured 73 hours on the VLA to observe the gaseous contents of the subset of 10 radio-loud quasars for which we have source inclinations and VLT data for insights on their evolutionary state and the black hole influence on its immediate surroundings.

• Dynamical Models: Anna is in the process of including additional velocity structures and photoionization physics into her dynamical modeling code in collaboration with Mike. Also, she will soon be modeling recent monitoring campaign data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 5548 over 180 days.

• X-shooter Large Program: Data have been corrected for telluric absorption, and the many orders of the Echelle spectrogram has been combined. The data are currently being analyzed.

Past Data Activities

• ALMA Cycle 2 Data: Our Cycle 2 ALMA data on Mrk 590 are beautiful!
  The program is to establish if the sudden disappearence of the broad emission lines and the continuum emission is due to the lack of central gas that fuels the central supermassive black hole. We do not detect any emission from CO(3-2) gas in the central 120pc x 180pc region, yielding an upper limit on the amount of gas of about 100.000 solar mass of gas. This is no more than is present in a Giant Molecular Cloud in our Milky Way Galaxy. Thus, there is not a lot of gas. But we discovered a ring-like structure that may provide additional gas and thus refuel the central engine, thereby regenerating the AGN. (Koay et al. 2016; paper 7 below).

• SMA Data: We also obtained SMA data from Hawaii on Mrk 590. They are published in Koay et al. 2016a (paper 7 below)

• VLA Data: The VLA data that we obtained on Mrk 590, showing that the radio emission also varies on similar timescales as the optical and UV emission, are published in Koay et al. 2016b (paper 10 below)

Upcoming/Planned Activities

• September - November: Marianne teaches....

Past Activities

• 2014 September: Marianne, Anna, and Kirk participated in the conference 'Inner regions of Quasars' at The University of Austin, Texas
• 2014 December: Marianne attended the conference `Revolution in Astronomy with ALMA - the 3rd year' in Japan presenting our results on Mrk 590.
• 2014 December: We announced the vacancy for a postdoc position in December 2014 and January 2015 for start September 1, 2015. Position has been filled.
• March - May 2015: Anna is on maternity leave. Congratulations, Anna!
• April 2015: we submitted applications for follow-up observations with ALMA in Cycle 3 for Mrk 590 plus for a new project to study the weird Iron Low-Ionization BAL quasars with ALMA.
• May 2015: we submitted a proposal to continue our large survey of quasars with the Swift satellite through the Danish Swift program.

• July 2015: Marianne gave an invited review talk at Institute d'Astrophysique Paris at the Gaia GREAT-esf meeting GAGNES (Group photo shown at right)

• July 2015: Marianne attended a workshop for the AGN-STORM-2014 collaboration in Columbus, Ohio.
• August 2015: Marianne presented an invited review talk at the High Energy Division Meeting at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly at Hawaii. Also at the IAU GA, Kevin presented a poster on our Cycle 2 ALMA data and SMA data of Mrk 590, while Daniel presented his work on the Hubble Space Telescope imaging of Iron Low-Ionization BAL quasars.
• 2015 July - September: Kevin was on parental leave.
• 2015 September: Sandra arrived!
• 2015 September/October: We submitted several observing proposals to the European Southern Observatory and to the Swift satelitte (Cycle 12). At ESO we asked for time on the Very Large Telescopes (VLT) and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) telescope to study the gas contents and dynamics in nearby AGNs
• 2015 October: Sandra and Daniel attended a Summer school on interferometry and ALMA in Finland
• 2015 December: Our APEX proposals were approved (41 hours total) !!
• 2016 January: Our Swift Cycle 12 GO proposals was approved (126 ksec total) !!
• 2016 January: Miss Kyoko Onishi (SOKENDAI, Japan) is visiting
• 2016 March-April: Proposal deadlines for VLT, HST, LBT, ALMA
• 2016 May: Marianne is giving several public talks in and around Denmark: Tycho Brahe Planetarium , Orion Planetarium , People's University in Aarhus and in Copenhagen.
• 2016 June: We submitted a proposal for Danish observing time (Cycle 4) with Swift to finish our catalog of quasar SEDs.
• 2016 June: Our APEX proposal (11.4 hours) was approved!
• 2016 July: Marianne, Anna, Mike, and Kirk participated in collaborators meeting in Iceland on HST monitoring of NGC 5548
• 2016 July-August: VLA observing time proposals, ESO/APEX Phase 2 preparations
• 2016 August: Our 2 ALMA Cycle 4 proposals were approved!
• 2016 August: Anna, Sandra, and Marianne met in Copenhagen for a week and made much progress on the modeling code
• 2016 September: We submitted a Swift GO Cycle 13 proposal to reobserve additional faint targets of our catalog. In addition, we submitted a range of observing proposals to the VLT and LBTO to observe the UV-optical and infrared emission from our quasars and to APEX for gas observations.

Links:

• Dark Cosmology Centre
• Astrophysics Preprint Server arXiv.org
• Harvard/NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service
• NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED)
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  
  

Presentations:

• Sept 2014: At the workshop 'Inner Regions of Quasars', University of Texas at Austin
  • "Do CIV narrow absorption lines take origin in disk winds?", by Marianne Vestergaard
  • "Constraints on the Geometry and Dynamics of the BLR from Modeling of Reverberation Mapping Data", by Anna Pancoast
• December 2014: At the conference "Revolution in Astronomy with ALMA - the 3rd Year", Japan: "Circumnuclear Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Mrk 590, a Seyfert Galaxy in Transition", by Koay, Vestergaard, Casasola, Peterson
• July 2015: At the Gaia GREAT-esf meeting GAGNES, Paris: "Quasar Black Hole Masses with GAIA", by Marianne Vestergaard (review talk)
• August 2015: Poster at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly: "Iron Low-ionization Broad Absorption Line quasars - the missing link in galaxy evolution?", by D.P. Lawther, M. Vestergaard, X. Fan.
• August 2015: Poster at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly: "Radio Continuum Variability and Molecular Gas Reservoirs in the Type-Transitioning Seyfert Galaxy Mrk 590", by K. Koay, M. Vestergaard, V. Casasola, B.M. Peterson
• August 2015: Invited review talk at the High Energy Division Meeting at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly, August 2015: "Black Hole Masses and Accretion in Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei", by M. Vestergaard
• May 2016: Invited talk at the Finnish Astronomy Days, May 2016: "Black Holes - Developments in the past 100 years", by M. Vestergaard
• June 2016 Poster at the conference "Active Galactic Nuclei: what's in a name?" at ESO in Garching, by J.Y. Koay

Publications:

In preparation:

• 1. "A Hubble Space Telescope imaging study of four FeLoBAL quasar host galaxies", by Lawther et al. 2016, journal paper
• 2. "Spectral Energy Distribution Variations of Nearby Seyfert Galaxies During AGN Watch Monitoring Programs", by Kilerci Eser, Vestergaard, Journal paper.
• 3. "On The Relation between the Broad Emission Line Shape and Eddington Luminosity Ratio for Seyfert Galaxies and Quasars", by Kilerci Eser, Vestergaard, Peterson, Journal paper

Submitted/In press:

• 1. "A Catalog of optical to X-ray Spectral Energy Distributions of z ~ 2 Quasars observed with Swift. I: First Results", by Lawther, Vestergaard, Raimundo and Grupe 2016, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, submitted
• 2. Swift "Monitoring of NGC 41151: Evidence for a Second X-ray/UV Reprocessing", by R. Edelson et al. (42 authors, incl. M. Vestergaard), Astrophysical Journal, submitted
• 3. "Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. V. Optical Spectroscopic Campaign and Emissing-line Analysis for NGC 5548", by L. Pei et al. (156 authors, incl. M. Vestergaard), Astrophysical Journal, submitted

Published:

• 11. Raimundo, S. et al. 2016, Tracing the origin of the AGN fuelling reservoir in MCG--6-30-15, MNRAS, in press
• 10. Koay, J.Y., Vestergaard, M., Bignall, H.E., Reynolds, C., Peterson, B.M. "Parsec-scale radio morphology and variability of a changing-look AGN: the case of Mrk 590",
• 9. Goad, M., et al. Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IV. Anomalous Behavior of the Broad Ultraviolet Emission Lines in NGC 5548, Astrophysical Journal 824, 11
• 8. Fausnaugh, M. et al. Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. III. Optical Continuum Emission and Broad-Band Time Delays in NGC 5548, ApJ, 821, 56
• 7. Koay, J.Y., Vestergaard, M., Casasola, V., Lawther, D.P., Peterson, B.M. 2016, MNRAS, 455, 2745, "ALMA Probes the Molecular Gas Reservoirs in the Changing-Look Seyfert Galaxy Mrk 590"
• 6. Koay, J.Y., Vestergaard, M., Casasola, V., Peterson, B.M. 2015, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Vol. 499, p163, "Circumnuclear Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Mrk 590, a Seyfert Galaxy in Transition"
• 5. King, A., et al. (13 co-authors, incl M. Vestergaard), 2015, MNRAS, 453, 1701, "Simulations of the OzDES AGN reverberation mapping project"
• 4. Cackett, E. M., Gultekin, K., Bentz, M. C., Fausnaugh, M. M., Peterson, B. M., Troyer, J., Vestergaard, M. 2015, ApJ, 810, 86, "Swift/UVOT Grism Monitoring of NGC 5548 in 2013: An Attempt at MgII Reverberation Mapping"
• 3. Edelson, R. et al. (49 co-authors, incl M. Vestergaard) 2015, ApJ, 806, 129 "Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. II. Swift and HST Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disk of NGC 5548"
• 2. De Rosa, G. et al. (49 co-authors, incl M. Vestergaard) 2015, ApJ, 806, 128, "Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project.I. Ultraviolet Observations of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on Hubble Space Telescope"
• 1. Kilerci Eser, E., Vestergaard, M., Peterson, B. M., Denney, K. D., Bentz, M. C., 2015, ApJ, 801, 8, "On the Scatter in the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei"

Other papers:

• 8. Marconi, A. et al. 2016, EELT-HIRES the high-resolution spectrograph for the E-ELT, in in Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 2016, Proc. SPIE 9908, 23
• 7. Krogager, J.-K. eet al. 2016, The extended High A(V) Quasar Survey: Searching for dusty absorbers toward mid-infrared selected quasars, ApJS, in press
• 6. Lopez, S. et al. 2016, XQ-100: A legacy survey of one hundred 3.5 < z < 4.5 quasars observed with VLT/XSHOOTER, A&A, in press
• 5. Perotta, S. et al. 2016, Nature and statistical properties of quasar associated absorption systems in the XQ-100 Legacy Survey, MNRAS, 462, 3285
• 4. Heintz, K. et al. 2016b, "The Population of High A_V Quasars in COSMOS: Determining the Fraction of Reddened Quasi-Stellar Objects" , A&A, in press
• 3. Heintz, K. et al. 2016a, "Serendipitous discovery of a projected pair of QSOs separated by 4.5 arcsec on the sky" , Astronomical Journal, 152, 13
• 2. Punsly, B., Marziani, Paola, Kharb, Preeti, O'Dea, Christopher P., Vestergaard, Marianne, 2015, ApJ, 812, 79: "The Extreme Ultraviolet Deficit - Jet Connection in the Quasar 1442+101"
• 1. Krogager, J.-K. et al (12 co-authors, incl M. Vestergaard) 2015, ApJS, 217, 5, " The High A_V Quasar Survey: Reddened Quasi-Stellar Objects Selected from Optical/Near-Infrared Photometry -- II"

Circulars etc

• Micchi, L. F. et al (15 co-authors, incl. M. Vestergaard) 2015, The Astronomer's Telegram, #7800, 1 , "HST Discovery of a Probable Supernova in Mrk 477"

Articles in Danish

• ``Tunge Sorte Huller -- Hvad kan de bruges til?", by M. Vestergaard, KVANT, nr 3, September 2016, Go here for article
• ``Kunsten at veje et sort hul'', by M. Vestergaard and Carsten Rabæk Kjær, Aktuel Videnskab, nr 5, December 2016

Other Useful or Interesting Links:

• Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Our recent result: Using Black Holes to measure Cosmic Distances - reached no. 4th On Top 10 Breakthroughs in 2011 by Physics World

Note: This page will constantly be updated ......

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Webmaster: mvester 'at' nbi.ku.dk.

Last updated 10-11-16