Press Release on the first Q3D Paper
Link to the ESA and NASA press releases of the first results from the JWST Q3D Project.
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Feedback from accreting supermassive black holes is now a standard ingredient in galaxy formation models. It is seen as necessary for explaining the steep decline of the galaxy mass function and for establishing the black hole vs. bulge correlations. In the last few years, optical and near-IR integral field unit (IFU) observations have provided new physical insights on this important issue. While these ground-based observations are limited by the Earth’s atmosphere, they provide tantalizing hints at the coming revolution that JWST’s high-resolution, near- and mid-IR capabilities will bring to this area of research. JWST will revolutionize our understanding of black hole-galaxy co-evolution by allowing us to probe the stellar, gas, and dust components of nearby and distant galaxies, spatially and spectrally. The JWST ERS Program "Q3D" makes use of the IFU capabilities of NIRSpec and MIRI and will study the impact of three carefully selected luminous quasars on their hosts. Our program will provide a scientific dataset of broad interest that will serve as a pathfinder for JWST science investigations in IFU mode. Luminous quasars are also excellent test cases for the PSF decomposition and spectral analysis package q3dfit that our team will provide for the community. For a wide range of extragalactic phenomena (e.g. quasars, starbursts, supernovae, gamma ray bursts, tidal disruption events) and beyond (e.g. nebulae, debris disks around bright stars), PSF contamination will be an issue when studying the underlying extended emission and our new data analysis tool that will enable frontier science for a wide swath of astrophysical research.
