Black holes and active
galactic nuclei:
Supermassive black holes are present in the centers of most or all
giant galaxies, and it is believed that they have an important
influence on the formation and evolution of galaxies. Recent and
ongoing projects include measurements of black hole masses in nearby
galaxies using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope,
investigations of the very smallest black holes that can be found in
active galaxies, observations of high-redshift quasars, and studies of
the physical conditions and energetics of very low-luminosity active
galactic nuclei.
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Selected
Publications:
- "Transient and Highly Polarized Double-Peaked
H-alpha Emission in the Seyfert 2 Nucleus of NGC 2110." Moran,
Barth, Eracleous, & Kay (2007, ApJ
Letters)
- “Dwarf
Seyfert 1 Nuclei and the Low-Mass End of the M-σ Relation.” Barth,
Greene, & Ho (2005,
ApJ Letters)
- “POX
52: A Dwarf Seyfert 1 Galaxy with an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole.”
Barth, Ho, Rutledge, & Sargent. (2004,
ApJ)
- “Iron
Emission in the z = 6.4 Quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3.” Barth,
Martini, Nelson, & Ho. (2003,
ApJ Letters)
- “Evidence
for a Supermassive Black Hole in the S0 Galaxy NGC 3245.” Barth,
Sarzi, Rix, Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent. (2001,
ApJ)
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Structure, morphology,
and dynamics of nearby galaxies:
The
Carnegie-Irvine Nearby Galaxies Survey is a comprehensive optical and
infrared imaging survey of the 600 brightest galaxies in the
southern-hemisphere sky, being carried out at the 2.5-meter Du Pont
telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. The project
website
includes a description of some of the initial scientific goals.
Related projects include Hubble Space Telescope surveys of the central
structure of nearby galaxies, and examination of the structure of
low-surface brightness galaxies.
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Selected
Publications:
- "A Normal
Stellar Disk in the Galaxy Malin
1." (2007,
AJ)
- “Constraining
dark matter halo profiles and galaxy formation models using spiral arm
morphology. I. Method outline.” Seigar, Bullock, Barth, & Ho. (2006,
ApJ)
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Starburst galaxies and
super star clusters:
Observations of barred spiral galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope
have revealed populations of young, massive star clusters in starburst
rings, fueled by inflows of gas along the galaxy’s bar. The
clusters
are very similar to young globular clusters, with masses as high as
100,000 solar masses, and half-light radii of just a few parsecs.
These starburst rings are the sites of some of the most intense star
formation found in morphologically normal galaxies.
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Selected
Publications:
- “An
Ultraviolet through Infrared Look at Star Formation and Super Star
Clusters in Two Circumnuclear Starburst Rings.” Maoz, Barth, Ho,
Sternberg, & Filippenko. (2001,
AJ)
- “Hubble
Space Telescope Observations of Circumnuclear Star-Forming Rings in NGC
1097 and NGC 6951.” Barth, Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent. (1995,
AJ)
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Other topics:
Including, but not limited to, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae,
stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way, and the weird star KH15D.
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Selected Publications:
- "Temporal Variation in the Abundance of Excited Fe+
Near a Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow." Dessauges-Zavadsky, Chen,
Prochaska, Bloom, & Barth (2006,
ApJ Letters)
- "Optical
Spectropolarimetry of the GRB 020813 Afterglow." Barth, Sari,
Cohen,
Goodrich, Price, Fox, Bloom, Soderberg, & Kulkarni. (2003,
ApJ Letters)
- "Spectropolarimetry and Modeling of the Eclipsing T
Tauri Star KH 15D." Agol, Barth, Wolf, & Charbonneau. (2004,
ApJ)
- “A Black Hole in the X-Ray Nova GS 2000+25.”
Filippenko, Matheson, & Barth. (1995,
ApJ Letters)
- “The Type IC Supernova 1994I in M51: Detection of
Helium and Spectral Evolution.” Filippenko, Barth, and 16 others.
(1995,
ApJ Letters)
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[UC
Irvine] [Department
of Physics and Astronomy] [UCI Center for
Cosmology]
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