Program: GN-2010A-Q-91
Title: | Follow-up of candidate dual-SMBH galaxies with long-slit spectroscopy |
PI: | Brian F Gerke |
Co-I(s): | Julie Comerford, Roger Griffith, Dan Stern, Michael Cooper, Jeffrey Newman, Marc Davis |
Abstract
Observations have established that some galaxies harbor two
supermassive black holes separated by $\sim 1$ kpc (so-called \emph{dual
SMBHs}), as a result of
a recent merger. A statistical study of such systems would have
important implications for galaxy evolution, SMBH growth, and future
gravitational wave experiments, but identifying dual SMBHs in
large numbers is challenging. A promising spectroscopic detection
technique has recently been suggested, which searches for
double-peaked narrow emission lines indicating two widely separated
active nuclei orbiting in a single galaxy. More study is needed,
however, to differentiate
between the spectroscopic signature of dual SMBHs and that of ionized
outflowing gas. We propose observations that aim to test and refine
the spectroscopic technique for dual-SMBH detection by comparing the
two-dimensional spectra of several double-peaked AGN sources to each
other and to AGN that are known to have double nuclei. Our goal is to
develop and establish a spectroscopic signature for dual SMBHs that
can be used to identify a statistically interesting sample.
Publications using this program's data
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[data]
[ADS] The Origin of Double-peaked Narrow Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei. IV. Association with Galaxy Mergers