Oral Presentation

Megamaser Cosmology Project : Direct Determination of the Hubble constant with Megamaser Galaxies and Accurate Masses of Supermassive Black Holes at Their Centers

Author(s): Kuo, Cheng-Yu, Braatz, Jim, Lo, K. Y., Gao, F., Condon, J., Reid, M., Henkel, C., Impellizzeri, C. M. V., Greene, J., Pesce, D.

Presenter: Cheng-Yu Kuo (ASIAA)

The determination of an accurate and precise Hubble constant Ho has been considered to be one of the most important ways to constrain the nature of dark energy in light of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Among the various methods of direct Hubble constant determination, the H2O megamaser technique provides a unique way to measure the angular-diameter distance to galaxies as far as 200 Mpc in a single step and hence allows a Hubble constant determination with potentially smaller systematic uncertainty. In this talk, I will upate the latest progress of the Megamaser Cosmology Project for Hubble constant determination. In addition, I will also report the latest black mass measurement, the most important by-product of the megamaser technique, and discuss how well they fit the M-sigma relation and the implication for black hole-galaxy coevolution.