First sphere-of-influence-resolving CO dynamical measurement gives the NGC 1574 black hole a mass of (6.2 +/- 1.2) x 10^7 solar masses.
WISDOM Project -- XXVI. Cross-checking supermassive black hole mass estimates from ALMA CO gas kinematics and SINFONI stellar kinematics in the galaxy NGC 4751
1 Pith paper cite this work, alongside 2 external citations. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
We present high angular resolution ($0.19''$ or $\approx24$ pc) ALMA observations of the $^{12}$CO(3-2) line emission of the galaxy NGC 4751. The data provide evidence for the presence of a central SMBH. Assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio ($M/L$), we infer a SMBH mass $M_\text{BH}=3.43^{+0.45}_{-0.44}[\text{stat},3\sigma]^{+0.22}_{-0.64}[\text{sys}]\times10^9$ M$_\odot$ and a F160W filter stellar $M/L_{F160W}=2.68\pm0.11[\text{stat},3\sigma]^{+0.10}_{-0.80}[\text{sys}]$ M$_\odot$/L$_{\odot,\text{F160W}}$, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. Assuming a linearly spatially-varying $M/L$, we infer $M_\text{BH}=2.79^{+0.75}_{-0.57}[\text{stat},3\sigma]^{+0.75}_{-0.45}[\text{syst}]\times10^9$ M$_\odot$ and $(M/L_\text{F160W})/(\text{M}_\odot/\text{L}_{\odot,\text{F160W}})=3.07^{+0.27}_{-0.35}[\text{stat},3\sigma]^{+0.08}_{-1.14}[\text{sys}]-0.09^{+0.08}_{-0.06}[\text{stat},3\sigma]^{+0.08}_{-0.01}[\text{sys}](R/\text{arcsec})$, where $R$ is the galactocentric radius. We also present SMBH mass estimates using the Jeans Anisotropic Modelling (JAM) method and Very Large Telescope Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observations in the Near Infrared (SINFONI) stellar kinematics. Assuming a cylindrically-aligned velocity ellipsoid (JAM$_\text{cyl}$) we infer $M_\text{BH}=(2.52\pm 0.36)\times10^9$ M$_\odot$, while assuming a spherically-aligned velocity ellipsoid (JAM$_\text{sph}$) we infer $M_\text{BH}=(3.24\pm0.87)\times10^9$ M$_\odot$. The SMBH mass assuming a constant $M/L$ is statistically consistent with that of JAM$_\text{sph}$, whereas the mass assuming a linearly-varying $M/L$ is consistent with both JAM$_\text{cyl}$ and JAM$_\text{sph}$ (within the uncertainties). Our derived masses are larger than (and inconsistent with) one previous stellar dynamical measurement using the Schwarzschild orbit-superposition method and the same SINFONI kinematics.
fields
astro-ph.GA 1years
2025 1verdicts
ACCEPT 1representative citing papers
citing papers explorer
-
WISDOM Project -- XXV. Improving the CO-dynamical supermassive black hole mass measurement in the galaxy NGC 1574 using high spatial resolution ALMA observations
First sphere-of-influence-resolving CO dynamical measurement gives the NGC 1574 black hole a mass of (6.2 +/- 1.2) x 10^7 solar masses.