Detail for Program: GN-2007A-Q-62

Abstract

NGC6240 is an infrared luminous merging system harbouring two supermassive black holes in the nuclei of the interacting galaxies. As the only binary black hole system known, NGC6240 represents an unique laboratory in the local Universe to study the gas and stellar dynamics in the very central regions of an early stage merger. We propose to use near infrared tracers to follow the motions of the stars and gas in the most kinematically active central region of this galaxy. The high spatial and spectral resolution afforded by AO-assisted integral field spectroscopy with NIFS+ALTAIR/LGS, will allow us to investigate dynamics on a scale of a few tens of parsecs. Additionally, resolving the stellar kinematics in the immediate vicinity of the binary black holes will permit the first measurement of their individual masses. These results will have strong implications for the M-sigma relation and hierarchical merger models of galaxy formation.

Publications using this program's data

[data] [ADS] Gemini NIFS survey of feeding and feedback processes in nearby active galaxies - VI. Stellar populations

[data] [ADS] The origin of the near-IR line emission from molecular, low and high ionization gas in the inner kiloparsec of NGC 6240

[data] [ADS] A 5 x 109 Msun Black Hole in NGC 1277 from Adaptive Optics Spectroscopy

[data] [ADS] Observational constraints on the stellar recycled gas in active galactic nuclei feeding

[data] [ADS] The AGNIFS survey: distribution and excitation of the hot molecular and ionized gas in the inner kpc of nearby AGN hosts

[data] [ADS] The massive relic galaxy NGC 1277 is dark matter deficient. From dynamical models of integral-field stellar kinematics out to five effective radii

Title:	Measuring the masses of the obscured binary black holes in NGC 6240
PI:	Matthias Tecza
Co-I(s):	Niranjan Thatte, Aprajita Verma, Ryan Houghton, Roger Davies, John Magorrian