The mass and growth of (obscured) black holes and their host galaxies since the Universe was young

Objective

The goal of this proposal is to establish a method for the quantification of fundamental active galactic nucleus (AGN) properties, i.e. black hole (BH) masses and accretion rates, in high-redshift and obscured AGN. We aim to use infrared spectra from the Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes to study the kinematics and fluxes of gas emission lines originating from the AGN narrow-line region (NLR). Our first results indicate that the mid-infrared (MIR) NLR line widths follow the relation between the BH mass and the velocity dispersion of the stars in the bulge. This result indicates that the NLR kinematics can be used as a surrogate of the stellar kinematics in the computation of BH masses because they are influenced by the bulge gravitational potential. The MIR NLR luminosities correlate with the AGN bolometric luminosity, allowing us to measure its accretion rate. Still, two tests need to be performed prior to the use of NLR kinematics for the computation of BH properties. We need to i) examine how susceptible they are on outflows by studying their line profiles in wavelengths with little obscuration and in radio-loud and highly-accreting AGN, and ii) test that our technique can be applied in bright local AGN, which are the analogues of many high-z AGN. To populate the relation between the BH mass and the stellar velocity dispersion at high luminosities, we will use near-infrared data obtained with adaptive-optics assisted spectographs, to measure the stellar kinematics in local quasars. Once our tool is calibrated, we will use Spitzer and Herschel datasets to derive the first BH mass estimates of obscured type-2 AGN and to investigate for evolution in the masses of BHs from z~0 to z~3. Our tool will enable studies of the growth of (obscured) BHs and their host galaxies since the Universe was young and it can be largely used for the interpretation of future space missions datasets, such as James Webb Space Telescope spectra.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• natural sciences physical sciences astronomy astrophysics black holes
• natural sciences physical sciences astronomy observational astronomy

Keywords

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• Astrophysics

Programme(s)

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• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008 - Marie Curie Action: "Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development"

Call for proposal

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FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator