Tuesday, 18 March, 1997 at 10:30am

"The core structure of Seyfert galaxy nuclei" & "The UBC Liquid Mirror Telescope"

Scott Chapman - U British Columbia

ABSTRACT: "Galactic bars are frequently invoked as a candidate for facilitating the transfer of mass from the interstellar medium of active galaxies to their central engines. However, recent ground-based studies of Seyferts indicate the incidence of bars in these active galaxies is no higher than that in normal spiral galaxies. Furthermore, numerical simulations indicate that gas inflow generated by a large-scale stellar bar does not extend down to the scales required to feed the central engine. However, these simulations also indicate that a series of nested gaseous bars may form in some cases, driving inflow of gas to the scales where the central blackhole dominates the potential. Taking advantage of the resolution of AOB near-IR on CFHT provides a means to test this 'bars-within-bars' model for fueling the nucleus. I will also briefly talk about the UBC liquid mirror telescope project and its associated instrumentation."