PRECISE BLACK HOLE MASSES FROM MEGAMASER DISKS: BLACK HOLE-BULGE RELATIONS AT LOW MASS
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)
- NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E2E7 (Canada)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Auf dem Hugel, Bonn (Germany)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
The black hole (BH)-bulge correlations have greatly influenced the last decade of efforts to understand galaxy evolution. Current knowledge of these correlations is limited predominantly to high BH masses (M{sub BH{approx}}>10{sup 8} M{sub sun}) that can be measured using direct stellar, gas, and maser kinematics. These objects, however, do not represent the demographics of more typical L < L* galaxies. This study transcends prior limitations to probe BHs that are an order of magnitude lower in mass, using BH mass measurements derived from the dynamics of H{sub 2}O megamasers in circumnuclear disks. The masers trace the Keplerian rotation of circumnuclear molecular disks starting at radii of a few tenths of a pc from the central BH. Modeling of the rotation curves, presented by Kuo et al., yields BH masses with exquisite precision. We present stellar velocity dispersion measurements for a sample of nine megamaser disk galaxies based on long-slit observations using the B and C spectrograph on the Dupont telescope and the Dual Imaging Spectrograph on the 3.5 m telescope at Apache Point. We also perform bulge-to-disk decomposition of a subset of five of these galaxies with Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging. The maser galaxies as a group fall below the M{sub BH}-{sigma}{sub *} relation defined by elliptical galaxies. We show, now with very precise BH mass measurements, that the low-scatter power-law relation between M{sub BH} and {sigma}{sub *} seen in elliptical galaxies is not universal. The elliptical galaxy M{sub BH}-{sigma}{sub *} relation cannot be used to derive the BH mass function at low mass or the zero point for active BH masses. The processes (perhaps BH self-regulation or minor merging) that operate at higher mass have not effectively established an M{sub BH}-{sigma}{sub *} relation in this low-mass regime.
- OSTI ID:
- 21464872
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 721, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/721/1/26; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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