Cosmos Seminar
Apr
24
2025
Apr
24
2025
Description
Wichahpi King, The University of Texas at Austin
AGN Black Hole Masses Through Cosmic Time
To better understand the universe, we need to explore how it evolves and changes as a whole, as well as how the components that make up the universe evolve and change. For instance, how do galaxies and their central supermassive black holes co-evolve throughout time? One of the ways we can answer this question is by looking at the emission lines coming from the area surrounding an active black hole or an active galactic nuclei (AGN), which allows us to measure the gas dynamics around the black hole and determine the velocity of the material orbiting it. This relationship allows me to measure the mass of the supermassive black hole (Mbh_{bh}) using emission line widths and luminosity from spectroscopic observations. Simultaneously, my research utilizes light radial profile decomposition techniques to disentangle the AGN point source from the extended galaxy light distribution by fitting multi-component models that combine a central Gaussian and Sérsic model to imaging data. This decomposition is crucial for removing AGN contamination when estimating host galaxy properties through spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, which allows me to determine key galaxy parameters including stellar mass (M_{*}). Utilizing largely unbiased AGN data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) survey, I combine these techniques to investigate how the Mbh_{bh}-M_{*} relationship evolves over a redshift range of 0.25 to 0.96.
Alexa Morales
Other Events in This Series
Jan
23
2025
Cosmos Seminar: Seeking to Uncover The Obliquities of Small Planets
Jack Lubin is a postdoctoral researcher in Astrophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm • In Person
Speaker(s): Jack Lubin - UCLA
Mar
13
2025
Cosmos Seminar
Cosmos Seminar
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm • In Person
Speaker(s): William Roper - University of Sussex and Stephen Wilkins - University of Sussex