MEASURING the MASS of the CENTRAL BLACK HOLE in the BULGELESS GALAXY NGC 4395 from GAS DYNAMICAL MODELING

Mark Den Brok; Anil C. Seth; Aaron J. Barth; Daniel J. Carson; Nadine Neumayer; Michele Cappellari; Victor P. Debattista; Luis C. Ho; Carol E. Hood; Richard M. McDermid

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/101

MEASURING the MASS of the CENTRAL BLACK HOLE in the BULGELESS GALAXY NGC 4395 from GAS DYNAMICAL MODELING

Mark Den Brok, Anil C. Seth, Aaron J. Barth, Daniel J. Carson, Nadine Neumayer, Michele Cappellari, Victor P. Debattista, Luis C. Ho, Carol E. Hood, Richard M. McDermid

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

93 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

NGC 4395 is a bulgeless spiral galaxy, harboring one of the nearest known type 1 Seyfert nuclei. Although there is no consensus on the mass of its central engine, several estimates suggest it is one of the lightest massive black holes (MBHs) known. We present the first direct dynamical measurement of the mass of this MBH from a combination of two-dimensional gas kinematic data, obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrograph Gemini/NIFS and high-resolution multiband photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. We use the photometric data to model the shape and stellar mass-to-light ratio of the nuclear star cluster (NSC). From the Gemini/NIFS observations, we derive the kinematics of warm molecular hydrogen gas as traced by emission through the H₂ 1-0 S(1) transition. These kinematics show a clear rotational signal, with a position angle orthogonal to NGC 4395's radio jet. Our best-fitting tilted ring models of the kinematics of the molecular hydrogen gas contain a black hole with mass M = 4⁺⁸_-3 × 10⁵ M_o (3σ uncertainties) embedded in an NSC of mass M = 2 × 10⁶ M_o. Our black hole mass measurement is in excellent agreement with the reverberation mapping mass estimate of Peterson et al. but shows some tension with other mass measurement methods based on accretion signals.

Original language	English
Article number	101
Pages (from-to)	1-16
Number of pages	16
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	809
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/101
Publication status	Published - 10 Aug 2015

Access to Document

10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/101

Cite this

@article{7b997be17dab489e997cebfba888e6d7,

title = "MEASURING the MASS of the CENTRAL BLACK HOLE in the BULGELESS GALAXY NGC 4395 from GAS DYNAMICAL MODELING",

abstract = "NGC 4395 is a bulgeless spiral galaxy, harboring one of the nearest known type 1 Seyfert nuclei. Although there is no consensus on the mass of its central engine, several estimates suggest it is one of the lightest massive black holes (MBHs) known. We present the first direct dynamical measurement of the mass of this MBH from a combination of two-dimensional gas kinematic data, obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrograph Gemini/NIFS and high-resolution multiband photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. We use the photometric data to model the shape and stellar mass-to-light ratio of the nuclear star cluster (NSC). From the Gemini/NIFS observations, we derive the kinematics of warm molecular hydrogen gas as traced by emission through the H2 1-0 S(1) transition. These kinematics show a clear rotational signal, with a position angle orthogonal to NGC 4395's radio jet. Our best-fitting tilted ring models of the kinematics of the molecular hydrogen gas contain a black hole with mass M = 4+8-3 × 105 Mo (3σ uncertainties) embedded in an NSC of mass M = 2 × 106 Mo. Our black hole mass measurement is in excellent agreement with the reverberation mapping mass estimate of Peterson et al. but shows some tension with other mass measurement methods based on accretion signals.",

author = "{Den Brok}, Mark and Seth, {Anil C.} and Barth, {Aaron J.} and Carson, {Daniel J.} and Nadine Neumayer and Michele Cappellari and Debattista, {Victor P.} and Ho, {Luis C.} and Hood, {Carol E.} and McDermid, {Richard M.}",

year = "2015",

month = aug,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/101",

language = "English",

volume = "809",

pages = "1--16",

journal = "Astrophysical Journal",

issn = "0004-637X",

publisher = "IOP Publishing",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - MEASURING the MASS of the CENTRAL BLACK HOLE in the BULGELESS GALAXY NGC 4395 from GAS DYNAMICAL MODELING

AU - Den Brok, Mark

AU - Seth, Anil C.

AU - Barth, Aaron J.

AU - Carson, Daniel J.

AU - Neumayer, Nadine

AU - Cappellari, Michele

AU - Debattista, Victor P.

AU - Ho, Luis C.

AU - Hood, Carol E.

AU - McDermid, Richard M.

PY - 2015/8/10

Y1 - 2015/8/10

N2 - NGC 4395 is a bulgeless spiral galaxy, harboring one of the nearest known type 1 Seyfert nuclei. Although there is no consensus on the mass of its central engine, several estimates suggest it is one of the lightest massive black holes (MBHs) known. We present the first direct dynamical measurement of the mass of this MBH from a combination of two-dimensional gas kinematic data, obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrograph Gemini/NIFS and high-resolution multiband photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. We use the photometric data to model the shape and stellar mass-to-light ratio of the nuclear star cluster (NSC). From the Gemini/NIFS observations, we derive the kinematics of warm molecular hydrogen gas as traced by emission through the H2 1-0 S(1) transition. These kinematics show a clear rotational signal, with a position angle orthogonal to NGC 4395's radio jet. Our best-fitting tilted ring models of the kinematics of the molecular hydrogen gas contain a black hole with mass M = 4+8-3 × 105 Mo (3σ uncertainties) embedded in an NSC of mass M = 2 × 106 Mo. Our black hole mass measurement is in excellent agreement with the reverberation mapping mass estimate of Peterson et al. but shows some tension with other mass measurement methods based on accretion signals.

AB - NGC 4395 is a bulgeless spiral galaxy, harboring one of the nearest known type 1 Seyfert nuclei. Although there is no consensus on the mass of its central engine, several estimates suggest it is one of the lightest massive black holes (MBHs) known. We present the first direct dynamical measurement of the mass of this MBH from a combination of two-dimensional gas kinematic data, obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrograph Gemini/NIFS and high-resolution multiband photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. We use the photometric data to model the shape and stellar mass-to-light ratio of the nuclear star cluster (NSC). From the Gemini/NIFS observations, we derive the kinematics of warm molecular hydrogen gas as traced by emission through the H2 1-0 S(1) transition. These kinematics show a clear rotational signal, with a position angle orthogonal to NGC 4395's radio jet. Our best-fitting tilted ring models of the kinematics of the molecular hydrogen gas contain a black hole with mass M = 4+8-3 × 105 Mo (3σ uncertainties) embedded in an NSC of mass M = 2 × 106 Mo. Our black hole mass measurement is in excellent agreement with the reverberation mapping mass estimate of Peterson et al. but shows some tension with other mass measurement methods based on accretion signals.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945273632&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/101

DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/101

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84945273632

SN - 0004-637X

VL - 809

SP - 1

EP - 16

JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

IS - 1

M1 - 101

ER -

MEASURING the MASS of the CENTRAL BLACK HOLE in the BULGELESS GALAXY NGC 4395 from GAS DYNAMICAL MODELING

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this