Theodore Dunham, Jr. Grants for Research in Astronomy

• September 20, 2014
• Chandra

I request $3,000 to purchase a workstation to carry out data reduction, spectral fitting, and statistical analysis of joint Chandra X-ray and VLA radio data sets approved to be observed from June 2014 to September 2015 (accepted Chandra proposal 16700232). These observations will allow us to discriminate between competing models of the “fundamental plane” of black hole accretion. The fundamental plane relates the X-ray luminosity, radio luminosity, and mass of an accreting black hole, and it demonstrates that there is an intimate connection between inflow and outflow around black holes. Once analyzed, our new data will let us put the sorely missing largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs) on the fundamental plane. Then we can solve a critical question: Do SMBHs and stellar-mass black holes follow the same plane, or do they each follow their own, separate plane? Finally, once we have the full fundamental plane that includes the giant SMBHs (whether it is a single plane or two), we will be able to use the plane as a tool to estimate other SMBH masses with higher fidelity and for sources where other methods are useless. This is especially important for the largest black holes, which are critical players in a number of astrophysical sub-fields.