Black Holes &
Their Cosmic Hosts
Our group investigates the mass spectrum of central black holes — from intermediate-mass to ultramassive — and how they co-evolve with their host galaxies across billions of years of cosmic history.
Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Nuclear Star Clusters
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are known to co-exist in some cases with massive black holes, including in the Milky Way. But the relationship between NSCs and BHs is not well understood. Finding and weighing central BHs in lower-mass galaxies is challenging due to the difficulty of dynamically detecting the low-mass BHs they host.
Simulating ELT observations with HARMONI's high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, and the proximity of our low-mass early-type galaxy sample, we examine in detail their NSCs morphology, composition, kinematics, and dynamical masses — shedding light on their formation origins either via gas in situ or stellar migration.
Related Publications →
Supermassive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
Scaling relations between central black hole mass and host galaxy properties — e.g., the bulge mass component and bulge velocity dispersion of stars — hint at joint evolution of black holes and galaxies.
Estimating the dynamical mass of black holes and their host galaxies at different redshifts is fundamental to establishing their growth scenarios over the cosmic time. We extend these measurements into the dwarf galaxy regime, pushing observational limits with ELT/HARMONI and ALMA.
Related Publications →
Supermassive Black Hole Evolutions
The most massive galaxies obey a well-defined scaling relation between galaxy mass and central black hole mass or galaxy mass and velocity dispersion. This reveals the co-evolutions of central black holes and their hosts. However, the relation and evolution at low-mass and ultramassive regimes remains not well understood.
Evidences from most massive galaxies show that the central black hole mass positive outliers from the Mbh-sigma or Mbh-Lk relation suggest they assemble their matter via a sequence of bulge growth to dry-merger growth. We study how the most massive black holes can form at the highest galactic-mass ladder.
Related Publications →Our Observational Arsenal
State-of-the-art telescopes spanning radio to optical wavelengths, giving us an unprecedented multi-wavelength view of black holes and their host galaxies.
