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THE PROPOSED RESEARCH FOCUSES ON ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (AGNS) AND THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MASS OF THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE (MBH) AND THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR HOST GALAXY INDICATING A CLOSE LINK BETWEEN THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF BHS AND GALAXIES. THE RELATION BETWEEN MBH AND STELLAR-VELOCITY DISPERSION (SIGMA) IS CONSIDERED THE TIGHTEST AND THUS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL. IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR THE CALIBRATION OF MBH IN AGNS. HOWEVER WHEN SIGMA IS DETERMINED FROM FIBER-BASED OR LONG-SLIT SPECTROSCOPY SIGNIFICANT UNCERTAINTY IS INTRODUCED WITH DEVIATIONS UP TO 40% DEPENDING ON THE APERTURE USED DRIVEN BY EFFECTS OF INCLINATION THE PRESENCE OF A KINEMATICALLY COLD BUT ROTATING DISK AND AN AGN POWER-LAW CONTINUUM OUTSHINING THE UNDERLYING STELLAR ABSORPTION LINES. 3D SPECTROSCOPY IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD FOR A PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF SIGMA. AT THE SAME TIME REVERBERATION MAPPING (RM) PROVIDES THE MOST RELIABLE MBH FOR BROAD-LINE AGNS. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RM AGN SAMPLE CANNOT BE OVERSTATED: IT SERVES AS A MBH CALIBRATOR FOR THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. TO COMPLEMENT 20 NEW MASSIVE RM AGNS FOR WHICH WE HAVE RECENTLY OBTAINED VLT/ MUSE AND/OR KECK/KCWI 3D SPECTRA WE HERE PROPOSE TO ANALYSE 13 RM AGNS AVAILABLE THROUGH THE KECK OBSERVATORY ARCHIVE (KOA) HST AND 2MASS. KOA HST AND 2MASS ARE PROJECTS/MISSIONS WITH A SIGNIFICANT NASA CONTRIBUTION AND CAN THUS SERVE AS A PRIMARY DATA SOURCE FOR AN ADAP PROPOSAL. SPATIALLY-RESOLVED SIGMA WILL BE DERIVED BY ANALYZING CO ABSORPTION LINES IN NEARINFRARED ADAPTIVE-OPTICS ASSISTED 3D KECK/OSIRIS SPECTRA. THESE SPECTRA ENABLE MEASUREMENTS OF THE STELLAR KINEMATICS DOWN TO THE CENTRAL 100-200 PC. GIVEN THE LOWER LUMINOSITY OF THIS SAMPLE AND THUS THE SMALL BULGE SIZES SUCH A RESOLUTION IS ESSENTIAL. WE WILL USE A DEBLENDING TECHNIQUE TO SUBTRACT THE UNRESOLVED AGN EMISSION FROM THE NUCLEAR SPECTRA. FOR A PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF HOST GALAXY PROPERTIES WE WILL ANALYZE ARCHIVAL HST IMAGES. IN PREVIOUS LITERATURE STUDIES THE EMPHASIS WAS ON THE HOST-GALAXY FREE AGN LUMINOSITY THAT IS DISENTANGLING HOST AND AGN FOR THE CREATION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN BROAD-LINE REGION RADIUS AND AGN LUMINOSITY. HERE WE WILL RE-ANALYZE THE SAMPLE FOCUSING ON OBTAINING A ROBUST MEASUREMENT OF THE EFFECTIVE BULGE RADIUS. MOREOVER THIS WILL ENSURE A HOMOGENEOUS IMAGE ANALYSIS. WE WILL USE OUR NEW CODE LENSTRONOMY WHICH SUPERSEDES GALFIT BY USING AN MCMC TECHNIQUE TO PROVIDE REALISTIC ERRORS AND EXPLORE THE COVARIANCE BETWEEN THE VARIOUS MODEL PARAMETERS. WE WILL APPLY THE SAME HOST-GALAXY DECOMPOSITION TO K-BAND 2MASS IMAGES WHICH ARE LESS AFFECTED BY EXTINCTION AND COVER THE SAME WAVELENGTH RANGE AS THE OSIRIS SPECTRA. HST AND 2MASS IMAGES ARE THUS COMPLEMENTARY AND INFORM EACH OTHER. FITTING THE CORRECT MODEL IS NOT ONLY IMPORTANT FOR PROPER MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION BUT ESPECIALLY FOR THE EFFECTIVE RADIUS MEASUREMENT WHICH IN TURN AFFECTS SIGMA. WHEN COMBINED WITH THE 20 LUMINOUS RM AGNS OUR SAMPLE WILL HAVE THE MOST ROBUST MBH AND SIGMA MEASUREMENTS OF AGNS IN THE UNIVERSE SPREADING A WIDE RANGE OF MASSES AND HOST GALAXY PROPERTIES. WE WILL PROBE THE SLOPE OF THE MBH-SIGMA RELATION ITS INTERCEPT AND SCATTER CONSTRAIN THE AVERAGE F FACTOR AND STUDY DEPENDENCIES OF THE RELATION ON LUMINOSITY EDDINGTON RATIO AND HOSTGALAXY MORPHOLOGY - ALL ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS FOR ROBUST MBH ESTIMATES FOR QUASARS IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

$75,207FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

Cal Poly Corporation

Investigators

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