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Dust in the wind — a new paradigm for inflow and outflow structures around supermassive black holes

Objective

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) represent the active growing phases of supermassive black holes. For the first time, we are able to resolve the dusty gas on parsec scales and directly test our standard picture of these objects. While this “unification scheme” relates the parsec-scale IR emission with a geometrically-thick disk, I have recently found that the bulk of the dust emission comes from the polar region of the alleged disk where gas is blown out from the vicinity of the black hole. Along with these polar features, the compactness of the dust distribution seems to depend on the accretion state of the black hole. Neither of these findings have been predicted by current models and lack a physical explanation.
To explain the new observations, I proposed a revision to the AGN unification scheme that involves a dusty wind driven by radiation pressure. Depending on their masses, velocities, and frequency, such dusty winds might play a major role in self regulating AGN activity and, thus, impact the interplay between host and black hole evolution. However, as of now we do not know if these winds are ubiquitous in AGN and how they would work physically. Upon completion of the research program, I want to
• characterise the pc-scale mass distribution, its kinematics, and the connection to the accretion state of the AGN,
• have a physical explanation of the dusty wind features and constrain its impacts on the AGN environment, and
• have established dust parallax distances to several nearby AGN, as a multi-disciplinary application of the constraints on the dust distribution.
For that, I will combine the highest angular resolution observations in the IR and sub-mm to create the first pc-scale intensity, velocity, and density maps of a sample of 11 AGN. I will develop a new model that combines hydrodynamic simulations with an efficient treatment of radiative transfer to simulate dusty winds. Finally, direct distances to 12 AGN with a combined 3% precision will be measured.

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Topic(s)

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2015-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 475 171,00
Address
Highfield
SO17 1BJ SOUTHAMPTON
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Hampshire and Isle of Wight Southampton
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 475 171,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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