0Assigned ID: 2694
----- Attempting Submission 1 (Mon Jan 31 23:08:47 GMT 2022) -----
HST Phase I Proposal 2694 successfully submitted.
Receipt: # 2694-1This is a resubmission that includes an approved additional visit instead of a failed one.-215285329----- Attempting Submission 2 (Wed May 04 20:52:05 GMT 2022) -----
----- Attempting Submission 3 (Tue Jul 12 05:03:16 GMT 2022) -----
----- Attempting Submission 4 (Mon Aug 29 22:22:04 GMT 2022) -----Ultraviolet spectroscopic confirmation of an active binary intermediate-mass black holeThe origin and evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galaxy centers remain among the most important open questions of modern astrophysics. They grow from yet unidentified BH seeds by accreting gas in the active galactic nucleus (AGN) phase or via coalescences during galaxy mergers. Low-mass BH seeds (100s MSun) should leave behind a population of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) holding the key for SMBH origin. SMBH binaries form at the pre-coalescence stage and then become the sources of gravitation waves, which will likely be detected at cosmological distances by the LISA space mission.
We present the first candidate active IMBH binary, J1631+24 (z=0.0433; 190Mpc) with the mass ratio of 10:1 (10^6 and 10^5 MSun) detected via double-peaked broad optical hydrogen lines separated in velocity by 300 km/s in a compact low-mass elliptical galaxy with morphology suggestive of a past merger. The two-component shape and the velocity separation have been persistent over 17 years. If confirmed, it will be the first example of such a system directly proving the hierarchical growth of SMBHs in the low-mass regime.
Alternatively, dust near the AGN can cover and extinguish the receding part of the broad line component. We propose to observe J1631+24 using Cosmic Origins Spectrograph in the low-resolution far/near-UV setups (G140L/G230L), which cover several broad emission lines (Mg, C, H), originating from different areas of the broad-line region and, hence, expected to have different widths. If the velocity separation of the components remains the same, we will confirm the binary IMBH. If the red broad component disappears, this will favor the dust scenario.
We will analyze spectral lines profiles for MgII, CIII, CIV, and Ly-alpha lines by recovering the narrow line shape from forbidden lines in the range (taking into account spectral resolution variations across the spectral range) and fitting it simultaneously with two broad components represented by Gauss-Hermite and/or Lorentzian profiles. The procedure is overall similar to how we analyzed SDSS, Keck, and Magellan optical spectra with the only difference that it will not include stellar population template because its contribution is expected to be negligible.HST ultraviolet spectroscopic capabilities are absolutely essential to achieve our goals. No other space observatories with UV spectroscopic capabilities and enough collecting area to observe a faint extragalactic source exist. NASA Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has a UV grism slitless spectroscopic mode in its UltraViolet and Optical Telescope, however, its spectral resolution and sensitivity are far below what is required to achieve our goals. Moreover, Swift does not offer far-UV capabilities at all.
We propose to use the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS), the only available instrument providing a sufficient combination of spectral resolution and wavelength coverage to fulfill the goals of our project. To successfully resolve two broad components separated by 300km/s, we need a spectral resolving power of at least R=1500-2000, similar to that provided by SDSS in the optical. If the "dust" scenario is true, we do not expect to see any red wings in broad lines, and the blue peak offset by -250km/s from the systemic velocity will be obvious at R=1500. We also want the highest possible sensitivity and a large simultaneous wavelength coverage to observe several emission lines (with different ionization potentials) in one setup. Taking into account these considerations, we strongly favor COS over STIS, as the low-resolution gratings in the MAMA mode provide lower spectral resolution than we require. The UV flux in our galaxy as measured by GALEX is dominated by the contribution of the AGN at the 85 and 94% level in the NUV and FUV channels, as estimated from the shape of the stellar population template -- therefore, we do not expect any substantial contamination from the underlying population in the COS aperture. Our primary target in the NUV is the MgII line lambda=2800A redshifted to 2920A); the secondary target is the CIII lines (lambda=1907,1909A redshifted to ~1990A). The G230L grating in the 3000A central wavelength setup will cover both of them; we choose 3000 over 2950 to have slightly better wavelength coverage when combined with the FUV data. Our targets in the FUV range are Ly-alpha (lambda=1216A redshifted to 1268A) and C IV (lambda=1550A redshifted to 1617A) lines. The G140L grating with the 800A central wavelength will cover both of them with the maximum efficiency. We will use the ACCUM mode as the more efficient option provided that we do not need high temporal resolution.
We ran COS ETC with the QSO template (FOS based) as the best representation of the expected spectral shape, despite weaker broad lines in J1631+24 compared to a typical QSO because of the lower M_ BH. We used the flux normalization in the GALEX FUV and NUV bands and the published GALEX photometry of the source. To reach the S/N ratio of 30 per resolution element in Ly-alpha required for the line profile decomposition, we need about 9,800sec of integration time, which corresponds to 4 orbits in the G140L setup. To reach the S/N ratio of 20 per resolution element at R=1500 in the MgII line or 14 at R=2900 (the line is expected to be narrower than Ly-alpha, therefore the components will be better resolved and lower S/N ratio is needed to perform the analysis) we need 12,500sec, which corresponds to 5 orbits in the G230L setup. The C{\sc iii} line is then expected to have S/N~20 per resolution element. Based on these calculations, we request 9 orbits for the entire program.IC and IKat have been working together for over a decade; KG joined the team in 2016 during his 1st undergraduate year and already co-authored several refereed papers (ApJ and ApJS; three of those papers were followed with press releases and attracted media attention), and gave numerous presentations at professional conferences including an invited talk (tutorial on the preparation of observations) at the 40th anniversary of the MMT observatory. VT, VG, IKuz and ER are students supervised by IC who perform the analysis of XMM-Newton, Chandra, and Swift X-ray data that led to the selection of targets for this proposal as well as search/identify new intermediate-mass black hole candidates via analysis of the optical spectra. AA is an expert in HST imaging analysis and studies of compact galaxies (cE and UCD). MD is a MSc student supervised by IC, she is in charge of the analysis of optical light curves for IMBH candidates based on ZTF and ATLAS transient surveys. Franz Bauer is a professor at Pontifica Universidad Catolica (Chile). He is an expert in multi-wavelength studies of AGN and star-forming galaxies with Chandra, XMM-Newton, HST, ALMA, and a wide range of optical/near-IR ground-based facilities.
We have solid experience in the cutting-edge Virtual Observatory powered research in astrophysics which resulted in 2 publications in AAAS Science (Chilingarian et al. 2009 and Chilingarian and Zolotukhin 2015). With very limited manpower, we have successfully completed several projects, which included large-scale data analysis efforts, e.g. development of a dedicated data analysis technique and subsequent analysis of 1 million SDSS spectra. We compiled a multi-wavelength FUV-to-NIR Reference Catalog of Spectral Energy Distributions of galaxies (RCSED; Chilingarian et al. 2017 ApJS 228 14; http://rcsed.sai.msu.ru/) and identified the first bona fide population of intermediate-mass black holes using it (Chilingarian et al. 2018 ApJ 863 1).
During the last 4 years we have been running a very successful multi-wavelength campaign on search and characterization of intermediate-mass black holes and their host galaxies using Chandra, XMM-Newton, Swift, intermediate-resolution ground-based optical spectroscopy using MagE at the 6.5-m Magellan Telescope, NIR ground-based imaging using Magellan and MMT. We have performed analysis of multi-wavelength HST WFC3 and ACS/WFC data for several projects in the past, including the IMBH search and identification project published in 2018 in ApJ which falls into the 2% of most cited papers in astrophysics published in 2018.Supermassive Black Holes and Active GalaxiesGalaxies3falsefalsetruefalsefalsetruefalseSUPPORTEDGALAXYDWARF ELLIPTICALSEYFERTNOJ2000J2000COS/FUVSpectroscopicNoNoG140L800COS/NUVSpectroscopicNoNoG230L3000Hst Same orient constraint links visits (01 02 03)The scheduling data was generated by CASM 30.3.CASM was run in Phase II mode./private/var/folders/wx/zlzfj61d72v1jgpd_1t_92_c0000gn/T/OPVisit8600999382611706595.xml1657099205000142.45117(Tic-Visit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "01"
:proposal-version -1
:trans-version "20220630"
:date "30-Aug-2022 00:20:55.0"
:trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0
:FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0)
:number-of-orbits 4
:saa-model "31"
:si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0
:data-volume 313184
:tdrss-contact-duration 0
:coron NIL
)
(Tic-Obset
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "01"
:obset-id "01"
:pcs-mode "FGS"
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "01"
:orbit-number 1
:pcs-time 393
:si-vis-utilization 2764
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 95
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "01"
:orbit-number 2
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "01"
:orbit-number 3
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "01"
:orbit-number 4
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 426
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)true40The scheduling data was generated by CASM 30.3.CASM was run in Phase II mode./private/var/folders/wx/zlzfj61d72v1jgpd_1t_92_c0000gn/T/OPVisit1159082535494933808.xmlThis is a duplicate of the failed visit 01 (FUV)1659945515000112.0(Tic-Visit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "04"
:proposal-version -1
:trans-version "20220630"
:date "30-Aug-2022 00:20:56.0"
:trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0
:FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0)
:number-of-orbits 4
:saa-model "31"
:si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0
:data-volume 313184
:tdrss-contact-duration 0
:coron NIL
)
(Tic-Obset
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "04"
:obset-id "04"
:pcs-mode "FGS"
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "04"
:orbit-number 1
:pcs-time 393
:si-vis-utilization 2764
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 95
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "04"
:orbit-number 2
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "04"
:orbit-number 3
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "04"
:orbit-number 4
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 426
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)true40The scheduling data was generated by CASM 30.3.CASM was run in Phase II mode./private/var/folders/wx/zlzfj61d72v1jgpd_1t_92_c0000gn/T/OPVisit633957571105116835.xmlThis is a duplicate of the failed visit 04 (FUV)(Tic-Visit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "05"
:proposal-version -1
:trans-version "20220630"
:date "30-Aug-2022 00:20:57.0"
:trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0
:FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0)
:number-of-orbits 4
:saa-model "31"
:si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0
:data-volume 313184
:tdrss-contact-duration 0
:coron NIL
)
(Tic-Obset
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "05"
:obset-id "05"
:pcs-mode "FGS"
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "05"
:orbit-number 1
:pcs-time 393
:si-vis-utilization 2764
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 95
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "05"
:orbit-number 2
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "05"
:orbit-number 3
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "05"
:orbit-number 4
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 426
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)true40Hst Same orient constraint links visits (01 02 03)The scheduling data was generated by CASM 30.3.CASM was run in Phase II mode./private/var/folders/wx/zlzfj61d72v1jgpd_1t_92_c0000gn/T/OPVisit6376044089252183433.xml1656927785000142.45117(Tic-Visit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "02"
:proposal-version -1
:trans-version "20220630"
:date "30-Aug-2022 00:20:57.0"
:trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0
:FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0)
:number-of-orbits 3
:saa-model "32"
:si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0
:data-volume 521952
:tdrss-contact-duration 0
:coron NIL
)
(Tic-Obset
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "02"
:obset-id "02"
:pcs-mode "FGS"
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "02"
:orbit-number 1
:pcs-time 393
:si-vis-utilization 2764
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "02"
:orbit-number 2
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 48
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "02"
:orbit-number 3
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 360
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)true30Hst Same orient constraint links visits (01 02 03)The scheduling data was generated by CASM 30.3.CASM was run in Phase II mode./private/var/folders/wx/zlzfj61d72v1jgpd_1t_92_c0000gn/T/OPVisit17215447562771723980.xml1655647818000142.45117(Tic-Visit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "03"
:proposal-version -1
:trans-version "20220630"
:date "30-Aug-2022 00:20:58.0"
:trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0
:FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0)
:number-of-orbits 2
:saa-model "32"
:si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0
:data-volume 339280
:tdrss-contact-duration 0
:coron NIL
)
(Tic-Obset
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "03"
:obset-id "03"
:pcs-mode "FGS"
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "03"
:orbit-number 1
:pcs-time 393
:si-vis-utilization 2764
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 114
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)
(Tic-Orbit
:proposal-id 16919
:visit-id "03"
:orbit-number 2
:pcs-time 392
:si-vis-utilization 2765
:al-overhead-at-end 0
:internal-dur-at-end 436
:dark-offset NIL
:dark-utilization 0
:max-dark-utilization 1920
:low-sky "N"
:pcs-visibility 3157
:pcs-gap 0
)true20