THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS

Kuo, C Y; Braatz, J A; Condon, J J; Impellizzeri, C M. V.; Lo, K Y; Zaw, I; Schenker, M; Henkel, C; Reid, M J; Greene, J E

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/727/1/20

Title: THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS

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Abstract

Observations of H{sub 2}O masers from circumnuclear disks in active galaxies for the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) allow accurate measurement of the mass of supermassive black holes (BH) in these galaxies. We present the Very Long Baseline Interferometry images and kinematics of water maser emission in six active galaxies: NGC 1194, NGC 2273, NGC 2960 (Mrk 1419), NGC 4388, NGC 6264 and NGC 6323. We use the Keplerian rotation curves of these six megamaser galaxies, plus a seventh previously published, to determine accurate enclosed masses within the central {approx}0.3 pc of these galaxies, smaller than the radius of the sphere of influence of the central mass in all cases. We also set lower limits to the central mass densities of between 0.12 x 10{sup 10} and 61 x 10{sup 10} M{sub sun} pc{sup -3}. For six of the seven disks, the high central densities rule out clusters of stars or stellar remnants as the central objects, and this result further supports our assumption that the enclosed mass can be attributed predominantly to a supermassive BH. The seven BHs have masses ranging between 0.75 x 10{sup 7} and 6.5 x 10{sup 7} M{sub sun}, with the mass errors dominated by themore »« less

Authors:

Kuo, C Y ^[1]; Braatz, J A; Condon, J J; Impellizzeri, C M. V.; Lo, K Y ^[2]; Zaw, I ^[3]; Schenker, M ^[4]; Henkel, C ^[5]; Reid, M J ^[6]; Greene, J E ^[7]

Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE (United States)
Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, CA 91125 (United States)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Auf dem Huegel 69, 53121 Bonn (Germany)
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)

Publication Date:: Thu Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 2011

OSTI Identifier:: 21567615

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Astrophysical Journal

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 727; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/727/1/20; Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ACCRETION DISKS; BLACK HOLES; COSMOLOGY; DENSITY; GALAXIES; GALAXY NUCLEI; MASERS; MASS; WATER; AMPLIFIERS; ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT; EQUIPMENT; HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS; MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS; MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Citation Formats


                    Kuo, C Y, Braatz, J A, Condon, J J, Impellizzeri, C M. V., Lo, K Y, Zaw, I, Schenker, M, Henkel, C, Reid, M J, and Greene, J E. THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS.  United States: N. p., 2011. 
        Web.  doi:10.1088/0004-637X/727/1/20.

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                    Kuo, C Y, Braatz, J A, Condon, J J, Impellizzeri, C M. V., Lo, K Y, Zaw, I, Schenker, M, Henkel, C, Reid, M J, & Greene, J E. THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/727/1/20

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                    Kuo, C Y, Braatz, J A, Condon, J J, Impellizzeri, C M. V., Lo, K Y, Zaw, I, Schenker, M, Henkel, C, Reid, M J, and Greene, J E. 2011.  
        "THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/727/1/20.

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@article{osti_21567615,

  title        = {THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS},

  author       = {Kuo, C Y and Braatz, J A and Condon, J J and Impellizzeri, C M. V. and Lo, K Y and Zaw, I and Schenker, M and Henkel, C and Reid, M J and Greene, J E},

  abstractNote = {Observations of H{sub 2}O masers from circumnuclear disks in active galaxies for the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) allow accurate measurement of the mass of supermassive black holes (BH) in these galaxies. We present the Very Long Baseline Interferometry images and kinematics of water maser emission in six active galaxies: NGC 1194, NGC 2273, NGC 2960 (Mrk 1419), NGC 4388, NGC 6264 and NGC 6323. We use the Keplerian rotation curves of these six megamaser galaxies, plus a seventh previously published, to determine accurate enclosed masses within the central {approx}0.3 pc of these galaxies, smaller than the radius of the sphere of influence of the central mass in all cases. We also set lower limits to the central mass densities of between 0.12 x 10{sup 10} and 61 x 10{sup 10} M{sub sun} pc{sup -3}. For six of the seven disks, the high central densities rule out clusters of stars or stellar remnants as the central objects, and this result further supports our assumption that the enclosed mass can be attributed predominantly to a supermassive BH. The seven BHs have masses ranging between 0.75 x 10{sup 7} and 6.5 x 10{sup 7} M{sub sun}, with the mass errors dominated by the uncertainty of the Hubble constant. We compare the megamaser BH mass determination with BH mass measured from the virial estimation method. The virial estimation BH mass in four galaxies is consistent with the megamaser BH mass, but the virial mass uncertainty is much greater. Circumnuclear megamaser disks allow the best mass determination of the central BH mass in external galaxies and significantly improve the observational basis at the low-mass end of the M-{sigma}{sub *} relation. The M-{sigma}{sub *} relation may not be a single, low-scatter power law as originally proposed. MCP observations continue and we expect to obtain more maser BH masses in the future.},

  doi          = {10.1088/0004-637X/727/1/20},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/21567615},
  journal      = {Astrophysical Journal},

  issn         = {0004-637X},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 727,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 2011},

  month        = {Thu Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 2011}

}

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