QUASAR HOST GALAXIES AND THE M{sub SMBH}–σ{sub *} RELATION
- Australian Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670 (Australia)
We analyze the emission line profiles detected in deep optical spectra of quasars to derive the mass of their super-massive black holes (SMBH) following the single-epoch virial method. Our sample consists in six radio-loud (RL) quasars and four radio-quiet (RQ) quasars. We carefully fit a broad and narrow Gaussian component for each emission line in both the Hβ (10 objects) and Hα regions (5 objects). A very good agreement of the derived SMBH masses, M{sub SMBH}, is found using the fitted broad Hβ and Hα emission lines. We compare our M{sub SMBH} results with those found by previous studies. We study the relationship between the M{sub SMBH} of the quasar and the stellar velocity dispersion, σ{sub ∗}, of the host galaxy. We use the measured M{sub SMBH} and σ{sub ∗} to investigate the M{sub SMBH}–σ{sub ∗} relation for both the RL and radio-quiet subsamples. Besides the scatter, we find a good agreement between radio-quiet quasars and AGN+quiescent galaxies and between RL quasars and AGN. Our analysis does not support the hypothesis of using σ([O iii] λ5007) as a surrogate for stellar velocity dispersions in high-mass, high-luminosity quasars. We also investigate the relationship between the 5 GHz radio-continuum luminosity, L{sub 5GHz}, of the quasar host galaxy with both M{sub SMBH} and σ{sub ∗}. We do not find any correlation between L{sub 5GHz} and M{sub SMBH}, although we observe a trend that galaxies with larger stellar velocity dispersions have larger L{sub 5GHz}. Using the results of our fitting for the narrow emission lines of [O iii] λ5007 and [N ii] λ6583 we estimate the gas-phase oxygen abundance of six quasars, being sub-solar in all cases.
- OSTI ID:
- 22863139
- Journal Information:
- The Astronomical Journal (Online), Vol. 153, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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