SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES, PSEUDOBULGES, AND THE NARROW-LINE SEYFERT 1 GALAXIES

Journal Article · Wed Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/754/2/146· OSTI ID:22039208

Mathur, Smita; Peterson, Bradley M ^[1]; Fields, Dale ^[2]; Grupe, Dirk ^[3]

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1. Astronomy Department, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
2. L.A. Pierce College, Woodland Hills, CA 91371 (United States)
3. State College, Pennsylvania State University, PA (United States)

We present Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) observations of 10 galaxies that host narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) nuclei, believed to contain relatively smaller mass black holes accreting at high Eddington ratios. We deconvolve each ACS image into a nuclear point source (AGN), a bulge, and a disk, and fitted the bulge with a Sersic profile and the disk with an exponential profile. We find that at least five galaxies can be classified as having pseudobulges. All 10 galaxies lie below the M{sub BH}-L{sub bulge} relation, confirming earlier results. Their locus is similar to that occupied by pseudobulges. This leads us to conclude that the growth of BHs in NLS1s is governed by secular processes rather than merger driven. Active galaxies in pseudobulges point to an alternative track of black hole-galaxy co-evolution. Because of the intrinsic scatter in black hole mass-bulge properties scaling relations caused by a combination of factors such as the galaxy morphology, orientation, and redshift evolution, application of scaling relations to determine BH masses may not be as straightforward as has been hoped.

• OSTI ID: 22039208
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 754; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
CAMERAS
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXY NUCLEI
IMAGES
MASS
MORPHOLOGY
ORIENTATION
POINT SOURCES
RED SHIFT
SEYFERT GALAXIES
SPACE
STAR ACCRETION
TELESCOPES