Abstract
The clumpy maser discs observed in some galactic nuclei mark the outskirts of the accretion disc that fuels the central black hole and provide a potential site of nuclear star formation. Unfortunately, most of the gas in maser discs is currently not being probed; large maser gains favor paths that are characterized by a small velocity gradient and require rare edge-on orientations of the disc. Here we propose a method for mapping the atomic hydrogen distribution in nuclear discs through its 21 cm absorption against the radio continuum glow around the central black hole. In NGC 4258, the 21 cm optical depth may approach unity for high angular resolution (VLBI) imaging of coherent clumps which are dominated by thermal broadening and have the column density inferred from x-ray absorption data, ∼1023 cm−2. Spreading the 21 cm absorption over the full rotation velocity width of the material in front of the narrow radio jets gives a mean optical depth of ∼0.1. Spectroscopic searches for the 21 cm absorption feature in other galaxies can be used to identify the large population of inclined gaseous discs which are not masing in our direction. Follow-up imaging of 21 cm silhouettes of accelerating clumps within these discs can in turn be used to measure cosmological distances.