WISDOM

WISDOM

mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses

The WISDOM (mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses) project is making very high resolution observations of nearby galaxy centres with several telescopes, including ALMA, CFHT and the VLA.

We aim to:

  • Develop and calibrate the use of molecular gas as a tracer for measuring supermasive black hole masses
  • Use these advances to tie down SMBH-host relations across the Hubble sequence with a single technique.
  • Explore how the evolution and properties of molecular clouds are mediated by the extreme environments present in galaxy centres.
  • Investigate how cloud-scale ISM properties vary in different galactic environments of galaxy centres (nuclear discs, spiral arms, bar and gas flows).
  • Explore the extreme environments present in galaxy centres, and the gas flows that fuel AGN
  • Understand the physical processes regulating star formation within individual GMCs across the Hubble sequence, which in turn impacts our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies in general.

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