Program: GN-2016B-Q-18
| Title: | The Black Hole Population of the Most Massive Nearby Galaxies |
| PI: | Nicholas McConnell |
| Co-I(s): | Jens Thomas, John Blakeslee, Chung-Pei Ma, Charles Goullaud, Jenny Greene, Melanie Veale |
Abstract
The cosmic census of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is anchored by direct measurements in the nearby universe, from stellar or gas kinematics in galaxy nuclei. The volume-limited MASSIVE survey is the most systematically rigorous effort to uncover the upper end of the SMBH mass function, by examining the most massive elliptical galaxies over their full range of structural properties and cosmic environments. Our goal is to use integral-field spectrographs on Gemini to measure stellar kinematics and SMBH masses in 30 galaxies from the parent MASSIVE sample, tripling the number of well-measured black holes in galaxies more massive than 10^11.5 Msun. In semester 2016B we will observe seven MASSIVE galaxies with GMOS-N, adding to 20 galaxies observed in previous semesters. Our present targets are supported by new Hubble Space Telescope data, which will enable extremely precise distance determinations and solidify the relationship between SMBHs and massive galaxies' central stellar cores.
Publications using this program's data
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[ADS] The MASSIVE Survey XIII -- Spatially Resolved Stellar Kinematics in the Central 1 kpc of 20 Massive Elliptical Galaxies with the GMOS-North Integral-Field Spectrograph
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[ADS] The MASSIVE Survey XIV—Stellar Velocity Profiles and Kinematic Misalignments from 200 pc to 20 kpc in Massive Early-type Galaxies
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[ADS] Triaxial Orbit-based Dynamical Modeling of Galaxies with Supermassive Black Holes and an Application to Massive Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1453
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[ADS] The MASSIVE Survey. XVII. A Triaxial Orbit-based Determination of the Black Hole Mass and Intrinsic Shape of Elliptical Galaxy NGC 2693