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Abstract:
Thanks to the superb sensitivity and resolution of GRAVITY, ESO’s near-infrared beam combiner for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, our Large Programme study of the inner regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has delivered several recent breakthroughs. We have spatially resolved the broad line region (BLR) for three nearby AGN, supporting the rotating disc model, directly measuring the masses of their supermassive black holes (SMBHs), and testing the BLR radius-luminosity (R-L) scaling relation. We have measured the hot dust sizes for eight AGN and fully imaged the hot dust structure for two AGN. Our dust sizes also test the hot dust R-L scaling relation, revealing the first evidence for luminosity-dependent deviations from the expected relation. The novel GRAVITY data provide unique insight into the physics around SMBHs. In addition, they test the basic assumptions behind mass measurements based on the R-L scaling relation and reverberation mapping, which is currently the only method for measuring black hole masses in large surveys and out to high redshift. Our observations provide an entirely new, independent method for measuring SMBH masses. With GRAVITY+, we will be able to vastly expand to both larger samples and higher redshifts with the ultimate goal of tracing black hole growth and galaxy coevolution through cosmic time.
