The First Massive Black Holes: Formation, Evolution, and Observational Signatures

第一个大质量黑洞：形成、演化和观测特征

• 批准号: 1009867
• 负责人: Cindy Gulis
• 金额: $ 24.52万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-10-01 至 2014-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1009867&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: First; Massive; Black; Holes; Formation

The recent discovery of dozens of luminous quasars at redshifts greater than six from multi-band surveys indicates the existence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of a billion solar masses when the universe was less than one billion years old. These frontier observations present a big challenge to theoretical models. The present researchers have developed a set of physically motivated multi-scale cosmological simulations for the formation of redshift six quasars, which pave the way for studying black holes and galaxies in the early universe. The current project will improve these models and use them to further two goals, first, by following the formation and evolution of the first SMBHs dynamically, performing multi-scale cosmological radiation-hydro simulations including gas dynamics and black hole growth, and second, by predicting their observable properties through post-processing multi-wavelength radiative transfer, and gravitational radiation calculations from possible mergers. The study will shed new light on three outstanding questions: 1) what were the black hole seeds? 2) did the first SMBHs co-evolve with their host galaxies? and 3) what are their observational properties?Numerical advances that will be generally available to other scientists include the implementation of realistic accretion physics in two cosmological codes widely used throughout the community, and the addition of carbon monoxide line transfers to another widely used code. The results will be extremely useful both for current observations and for future surveys. The anticipated research results will inform and enlighten the principal investigator's teaching and outreach activities at her home institution, and are likely to be used for public education nationwide, continuing an existing involvement with the American Museum of Natural History and the Discovery Channel.

最近通过多波段巡天发现了数十个红移大于六的发光类星体，这表明当宇宙年龄不到十亿年时，就存在十亿个太阳质量的超大质量黑洞（SMBH）。 这些前沿观察对理论模型提出了巨大的挑战。 目前的研究人员开发了一套物理驱动的多尺度宇宙学模拟，用于红移六个类星体的形成，这为研究早期宇宙中的黑洞和星系铺平了道路。 当前的项目将改进这些模型，并利用它们来进一步实现两个目标，首先，动态跟踪第一个超大质量黑洞的形成和演化，执行多尺度宇宙学辐射水力模拟，包括气体动力学和黑洞生长，其次，通过通过后处理多波长辐射传输以及可能合并的引力辐射计算来预测它们的可观测特性。 这项研究将为三个悬而未决的问题提供新的线索：1）黑洞种子是什么？ 2）第一个超大黑洞是否与其宿主星系共同演化？ 3）它们的观测特性是什么？其他科学家普遍可以获得的数值进步包括在整个社区广泛使用的两种宇宙学代码中实现现实吸积物理，以及将一氧化碳线添加到另一种广泛使用的代码中。 结果对于当前的观测和未来的调查都非常有用。 预期的研究结果将为首席研究员在其所在机构的教学和推广活动提供信息和启发，并可能用于全国范围内的公共教育，继续与美国自然历史博物馆和探索频道的现有合作。