Revealing the vicinity of supermassive black holes with super high spatial resolution observations

• Project/Area Number: 26887044
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: Kyoto Sangyo University
• Principal Investigator: KISHIMOTO Makoto 京都産業大学, 理学部, 准教授 (00733354)
• Research Collaborator: HÖNIG Sebastian University of Southampton ; MILLOUR Florentin Observatoire de la Côte d Azur ; TEN BRUMMELAAR Theo Georgia State University, CHARA Array
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
• Budget Amount: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
• Keywords: 巨大ブラックホール系の構造 / 活動銀河中心核の物理 / 高空間分解能観測 / 光赤外干渉計

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A supermassive black hole is now believed to reside at the center of each galaxy quite ubiquitously. Mass accretion and ejection processes around this central black hole is likely to be closely related to the formation and evolution of the host galaxy. However, our understanding of the key structure at a central spatial scale of a few light years has seen only a slow progress, probably due to the critical lack of spatial resolutions. We aim to vastly advance our knowledge on this central structure with super high spatial resolutions given by near- and mid-infrared interferometers, revealing in particular the luminosity evolution of the structure.

Research Products

• [Int'l Joint Research] University of Southampton(United Kingdom)
• [Journal Article] The Dust Sublimation Radius as an Outer Envelope to the Bulk of the Narrow Fe Kalpha Line Emission in Type 1 AGNs (2015)
  • Author(s): Gandhi, Hoenig, Kishimoto
  • Journal Title: The Astrophysical Journal Volume: 812 Issue: 2 Pages: 113-113
  • DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/812/2/113
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] Spitzer Space Telescope Measurements of Dust Reverberation Lags in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 6418 (2015)
  • Author(s): Vazquez, Galianni, Richmond, Robinson, Axon, Horne, Almeyda, Fausnaugh, Peterson, Bottorff, Gallimore, Elitzur, Netzer, Storchi-Bergmann, Marconi, Capetti, Batcheldor, Buchanan, Stirpe, Kishimoto, Packham, Perez, Tadhunter, Upton, Estrada-Carpenter
  • Journal Title: The Astrophysical Journal Volume: 801 Issue: 2 Pages: 127-127
  • DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/801/2/127
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] A dust-parallax distance of 19 megaparsecs to the supermassive black hole in NGC4151 (2014)
  • Author(s): Hoenig, Watson, Kishimoto, Hjorth
  • Journal Title: Nature Volume: 515 Issue: 7528 Pages: 528-530
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature13914
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] The mid-/near-IR interferometry of AGNs: key results and their implications (2015)
  • Author(s): Makoto Kishimoto
  • Organizer: Torus 2015 - The unification scheme after 30 years
  • Place of Presentation: Winchester, United Kingdom
  • Year and Date: 2015-09-14
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Polarization from the inner regions of AGNs (2015)
  • Author(s): Makoto Kishimoto
  • Organizer: Polarization and AGN II
  • Place of Presentation: Strasburg, France
  • Year and Date: 2015-05-11
  • Invited
• [Presentation] The innermost dusty region and the BLR: constraints from IR interferometry (2014)
  • Author(s): Makoto Kishimoto
  • Organizer: The inner regions of quasars
  • Place of Presentation: Austin, USA
  • Year and Date: 2014-09-13
  • Invited