About the project
While supermassive black holes are widely known to reside in almost all massive galaxies, studies of supermassive black holes in low-mass "dwarf" galaxies are in their infancy. In this project you will use new survey data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and other facilities to understand how black holes impact their host galaxies in the dwarf regime.
Selecting actively accreting black holes through their characteristic time-varying emission, unlocks the potential to unearth new populations of low-mass black holes that cannot be identified using other selection techniques. Variability selection is on the cusp of being transformed with the arrival of data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space Time (LSST), which has now begun full survey operations and will image the entire southern sky every few days, building up a time-lapse cosmic movie of our Universe. LSST will allow low-mass black holes to be routinely detected out to redshift 1.
In this project you will utilise data from LSST and combine with other survey data e.g. from VISTA, Euclid, Roman and 4MOST, to connect the time-varying signatures of black hole accretion with the properties of the host galaxy in which these black holes reside.
Potential directions include:
- measuring the stellar masses and star formation rates of the host galaxies of variability selected AGN using LSST and VISTA
- understanding the morphologies of variability selected AGN in the dwarf and massive galaxy regime using Euclid/Roman
- constraining the black hole masses and accretion rates of variability selected AGN using 4MOST spectra
You will have the opportunity to work on the new survey data and join teams within large international collaborations exploiting new statistical techniques to identify and understand black hole activity. You will also be able to shape the direction of the project based on your own interests.
The School of Physics and Astronomy is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
