Feeding Black Holes: Gas Dynamics from the Outer Disk to the Very Nucleus in AGN Galaxies

• Applicant: Dr. Eva Schinnerer
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 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 Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1177: Witnesses of Cosmic History: Formation and Evolution of Black Holes, Galaxies and Their Environments