Speaker : Martin Bureau (Professor at University of Oxford)
Supermassive black holes are now known to lurk at the centres of most galaxies. They are also believed to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, by regulating the supply of the gas necessary to form stars. Here, I present key results from the mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses (WISDOM), a high resolution survey of molecular gas in galaxy nuclei. I first discuss the challenges facing such observations, and show how carbon monoxide (CO) can be used to easily and accurately measure the mass of these supermassive black holes. I then discuss substantial ongoing efforts to do this, and present many new spectacular measurements from the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). This effort opens the way to literally hundreds of measurements across galaxies of all morphological types, both active and non-active, with a unique method. It thus promises to revolutionise our understanding of the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.