DYNAMICAL MEASUREMENTS OF BLACK HOLE MASSES IN FOUR BRIGHTEST CLUSTER GALAXIES AT 100 Mpc
- Department of Astronomy, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
- National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ (United States)
- Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
We present stellar kinematics and orbit superposition models for the central regions of four brightest cluster galaxies, based upon integral-field spectroscopy at Gemini, Keck, and McDonald Observatories. Our integral-field data span radii from <100 pc to tens of kiloparsecs, comparable to the effective radius of each galaxy. We report black hole masses, M{sub .}, of 2.1{sup +1.6}{sub -1.6} Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 10} M{sub Sun} for NGC 4889, 9.7{sup +3.0}{sub -2.5} Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} for NGC 3842, and 1.3{sup +0.5}{sub -0.4} Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} for NGC 7768, with errors representing 68% confidence limits. For NGC 2832, we report an upper limit of M{sub .} < 9.0 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun }. Our models of each galaxy include a dark matter halo, and we have tested the dependence of M{sub .} on the model dark matter profile. Stellar orbits near the center of each galaxy are tangentially biased, on comparable spatial scales to the galaxies' photometric cores. We find possible photometric and kinematic evidence for an eccentric torus of stars in NGC 4889, with a radius of nearly 1 kpc. We compare our measurements of M{sub .} to the predicted black hole masses from various fits to the relations between M{sub .} and stellar velocity dispersion ({sigma}), luminosity (L), or stellar mass (M{sub *}). Still, the black holes in NGC 4889 and NGC 3842 are significantly more massive than all {sigma}-based predictions and most L-based predictions. The black hole in NGC 7768 is consistent with a broader range of predictions.
- OSTI ID:
- 22092323
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 756, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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