Detailseite
Projekt
Feeding Black Holes: Gas Dynamics from the Outer Disk to the Very Nucleus in AGN Galaxies
Antragstellerin
Dr. Eva Schinnerer
Fachliche Zuordnung
Astrophysik und Astronomie
Förderung
Förderung von 2005 bis 2011
Projektkennung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 5448792
The ’M•-b’ relation suggests a co-evolution of the central black hole and its host galaxy. Nearby AGN galaxies are ideal targets to test state-of-the-art dynamical models for the feeding - and thus growth - of a galaxy’s central region and black hole. We supplemented the NUGA IRAM 12CO survey of nearby AGN galaxies (D 40 Mpc) with high quality VLA HI data to study the overall gas flow from the outer disk to the center and to derive gas flow rates. These SPP-funded studies showed that the fueling of the central region is closely linked to the overall disk kinematics, AGN activity appears to occur during a special period in the life-time of a bar and circumnuclear star formation might play a critical role for preventing the fueling. Motivated by these results, we started to collect high-quality optical IFU data for two representative barred galaxies to investigate the importance of circumnuclear star formation for the fueling process (active: NGC6951, non-active: NGC5248). The aim of this project is via a in-depth study of the gaseous and stellar kinematics and distribution to understand how circumnuclear star formation proceeds and what its exact impact onto the nuclear fueling is.
DFG-Verfahren
Schwerpunktprogramme
