Measurement of Precise Black Hole Masses using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

The team will use a new facility, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), to measure the motions of gas close to supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. The gas motions will be modeled to obtain precise black hole masses. Such precision is needed to test puzzling hints that black holes grow in lock step with their host galaxies. The precise masses will also anchor inventories of black holes in the local universe. The team will also study the properties of the gas. Senior team members will mentor junior members drawn from underrepresented groups; undergraduate students from California State Universities and Community Colleges will have research opportunities beyond those available in their own institutions. The team will use ALMA's exquisite angular resolution to study molecular gas disks deep in the potential well of supermassive black holes. Their goals are to (1) use initial ALMA observations to identify target systems with high-velocity rotation and (2) use follow-up ALMA observations to constrain the masses of the black holes and the properties of their cold, circumnuclear disks.