About the project
This project aims to answer the questions of how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) grew through cosmic time and how they interacted with the growth of their galaxies.
One of the most significant breakthroughs in understanding galaxy evolution was the discovery that the masses of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centres of galaxies are linked to the properties of their host galaxies.
Understanding this link and how both components evolve together requires accurate measurements of SMBH masses across cosmic time.
However, beyond the local universe (redshift z > 0.2), we currently rely on indirect methods that are prone to systematic uncertainties and may give a misleading picture of how fast SMBHs grew in the early universe.
SMBH FACTORY is a new 5-year project selected through the ERC Advanced Grant and funded through the UKRI Horizon Guarantee.
With SMBH FACTORY, we will use the revolutionising angular resolution of infrared interferometry (GRAVITY+), the most sensitive industrial-scale reverberation mapping campaign (TiDES-RM), and novel 3D radiation hydro-dynamic simulations to measure “gold standard” SMBH masses out to redshift z ~ 3.
You will contribute at the critical interlink between observations and mass measurements. You will develop an advanced time-resolved spectral decomposition pipeline for the 4MOST TiDES reverberation mapping campaign, recover emission line lags of multiple lines, and determine black hole masses from 2 billion years after the Big Bang to today.
You will be supported by the SMBH FACTORY team members, learn a wide variety of observational and modelling techniques and work with data from the largest photometric and spectroscopic surveys, including LSST and 4MOST.
We are collaborating with international partners in Europe, the US, and Australia, and you can expect opportunities for research visits.
