Applying TMT's power to elusive thermal-IR mysteries.

Helping TMT capture the fine details and dynamics of the dusty universe.

Helping TMT capture the fine details and dynamics of the dusty universe…

The TMT's aperture will enable thermal IR, high resolution spectroscopic studies to progress from the current level, where most studies concentrate on the brightest 5-10 object of a given class, to a plane where comparative study of a hundred objects with good signal-to-noise is entirely practical. For example, a typical solar mass T Tauri star can be studied in a volume that extends past Orion as opposed to just reaching Taurus - permuting study of cluster star formation, not just formation in small aggregates. Objects ~3 magnitudes fainter become accessible, comparable to the gain between the Bright Star Catalog (~9,000 objects) and the HD Catalog (~360,000 objects including the extensions). Surveys that require 10 hours of integration time per target on 8-meter telescopes, will only require 3 minutes for the same signal-to-noise ratio.

MICHI studies will be critical to completing the picture of planetary system formation. While other facilities will be better for characterizing the diversity of planetary system, MICHI provided a uniquely powerful tool for probing planet formation environments for clues to the physical origin of this diversity. Higher excitation energy tracers, common in the MIR, will provide a direct view of the inner disc regions (<5 AU regions) where terrestrial and giant planets form.

Through observations of gas in discs, the interstellar medium, comments, and other environments, MICHI offers the opportunity to investigate the abundance of prebiotic compounds that led to emergence of life on Earth.

The Decadal Survey stressed the importance of extragalactic supermassive black holes (SMBH) to both astrophysics and cosmology. These is a clear connection between the SMBH and galaxy properties, as shown through the famous M_BH vs. M_bulge and M_BH vs. σ relationships, demonstrating that the galaxy bulge mass (M_bulge) and the stellar velocity dispersion (σ) are tightly correlated with (M_BH), despite being on widely different spatial scales. This correlation strongly implies some form of co evolution between the SMBH growth and the galaxy bulge, but the precise nature of this relationship remains uncertain. Understanding this relationship will help to address two crucial questions in cosmology:

• Which formed first, the SMBH or the galaxy?
• How did SMBHs form so soon after the big bang?

The SMBH will often show a level of 'activity' arising through accretion of gas and dust, leading to an Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). The study of AGN has recently been invigorated through high-spatial resolution observations of the torus in 8-m class telescopes. These observations have shown a complex, clumpy, and probabilistic unification scheme, with tentative hints that the torus structure is (partially) dependent on the level of AGN activity. Possible other effects could be the level of radio emission (radio loud/quiet AGN) and that of the host galaxy, as well the precise fueling of AGN. The complex interplay between the host galaxy and AGN remains poorly constrained, and is a goal of the Decadal Survey.