Chandra's Crucial Role in Identifying a Robust and Practical Accretion-Rate Indicator for Quasars
Abstract
Understanding the rapid growth of supermassive black holes and the assembly of their host galaxies is severely limited by the lack of reliable estimates of black-hole mass and accretion rate in distant quasars. We propose Chandra observations of 54 luminous, high-redshift quasars to boost our ability to identify the most reliable and practical Eddington-ratio indicator. In conjunction with archival data, we will investigate diagnostics of quasar accretion power in the X-ray and UV-optical spectral bands of a carefully selected sample of ~80 sources. We will ``stress test'' these diagnostics, relying critically on the X-ray observable properties, and deliver a prescription for the most robust Eddington-ratio estimate that can be utilized economically at the highest accessible redshifts.
- Publication:
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Chandra Proposal
- Pub Date:
- September 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022cxo..prop.6374S
- Keywords:
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- Chandra Proposal ID #24700311