J/AJ/147/93 Simulation of massive early type galaxies (Do+, 2014)
Prospects for measuring supermassive black hole masses with future extremely
large telescopes.
Do T., Wright S.A., Barth A.J., Barton E.J., Simard L., Larkin J.E.,
Moore A.M., Wang L., Ellerbroek B.
<Astron. J., 147, 93 (2014)>
=2014AJ....147...93D 2014AJ....147...93D
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, nearby ; Morphology ; Magnitudes, absolute
Keywords: galaxies: kinematics and dynamics - instrumentation: adaptive optics -
instrumentation: spectrographs - techniques: imaging spectroscopy -
telescopes
Abstract:
The next generation of giant-segmented mirror telescopes (>20m) will
enable us to observe galactic nuclei at much higher angular resolution
and sensitivity than ever before. These capabilities will introduce a
revolutionary shift in our understanding of the origin and evolution
of supermassive black holes by enabling more precise black hole mass
measurements in a mass range that is unreachable today. We present
simulations and predictions of the observations of nuclei that will be
made with the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the adaptive optics
assisted integral-field spectrograph IRIS, which is capable of
diffraction-limited spectroscopy from Z band (0.9µm) to K band
(2.2µm). These simulations, for the first time, use realistic
values for the sky, telescope, adaptive optics system, and instrument
to determine the expected signal-to-noise ratio of a range of possible
targets spanning intermediate mass black holes of ∼104M☉ to
the most massive black holes known today of >1010M☉. We find
that IRIS will be able to observe Milky Way mass black holes out the
distance of the Virgo Cluster, and will allow us to observe many more
of the brightest cluster galaxies where the most massive black holes
are thought to reside. We also evaluate how well the kinematic moments
of the velocity distributions can be constrained at the different
spectral resolutions and plate scales designed for IRIS. We find that
a spectral resolution of ∼8000 will be necessary to measure the masses
of intermediate mass black holes. By simulating the observations of
galaxies found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7, we find that over
105 massive black holes will be observable at distances between
0.005<z<0.18 with the estimated sensitivity and angular resolution
provided by access to Z-band (0.9µm) spectroscopy from IRIS and the
TMT adaptive optics system. These observations will provide the most
accurate dynamical measurements of black hole masses to enable the
study of the demography of massive black holes, address the origin of
the MBH-σ and MBH-L relationships, and evolution of black
holes through cosmic time.
Description:
We present simulations and predictions of the observations of nuclei
that will be made with the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the
adaptive optics assisted integral-field spectrograph IRIS (InfraRed
Imaging Spectrograph), which is capable of diffraction-limited
spectroscopy from Z band (0.9µm) to K band (2.2µm). The IRIS is
designed to be one of the first light instruments for the TMT, with
both imaging and integral-field spectroscopy capabilities. It will be
fed by an Adaptive Optic (AO) system, the Narrow-Field Infrared
Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), to provide diffraction limited
resolution. IRIS has both an image slicer and a lenslet spectrograph
to provide four spatial pixel (spaxel; following common usage in
Integral Field Spectrograph-IFS- observations, we use the term spaxel
to mean a spatial pixel in the IFS data cubes) scales -4mas, 9mas,
25mas, and 50mas- with wavelength coverage from the Z
(λcen=0.93µm) to K band (λcen=2.18µm).
In order to investigate the ability for IRIS to detect black holes in
nearby early-type galaxies, we used the sample of 219 early-type
galaxies compiled by Lauer et al. (2007, cat. J/ApJ/664/226). This
sample includes surface brightness fits for S0 and elliptical galaxies
using images from WFPC2, WFPC1, and NICMOS on HST.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table3.dat 75 211 Signal-to-Noise Ratio simulations for nearby
bright early-type galaxies
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See also:
V/139 : The SDSS Photometric Catalog, Release 9 (Adelman-McCarthy+, 2012)
II/294 : The SDSS Photometric Catalog, Release 7 (Adelman-McCarthy+, 2009)
J/ApJ/664/226 : Nuker law parameters of early-type galaxies (Lauer+, 2007)
J/ApJ/662/808 : Cusp radius in luminous elliptical galaxies (Lauer+, 2007)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 13 A13 --- Name Galaxy name (1)
15- 17 A3 --- MType Morphology type: BCG=Brightest Cluster Galaxy,
E=elliptical, S0, S0+, S0-, Sa, Sb, cE)
19- 23 F5.1 mag VMag [-24.6/-15.6] Absolute bulge V band magnitude
25- 28 F4.1 mag/arcsec2 muK K band surface brightness at break radius
30- 34 F5.1 Mpc Dist [10.2/321] Distance
36- 40 F5.2 pc Scale Physical scale (in units of pc/res.) (2)
42- 46 F5.2 --- gamma Inner power law slope γ (3)
48- 50 I3 --- SNR4p [2/143] 4mas peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (4)
52- 54 I3 --- SNR4i [10/610] Integrated Signal-to-Noise Ratio (4)
56- 58 I3 --- SNR9p [9/304] 9mas peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (4)
60- 62 I3 --- SNR9i [18/608] Integrated Signal-to-Noise Ratio (4)
64- 70 E7.1 Msun MBH Predicted black hole mass (5)
72- 75 F4.1 --- Ne [0.6/26.1] Number of resolution elements (6)
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Note (1): Galaxy sample from Lauer et al. (2007, cat. J/ApJ/664/226), along
with galaxy properties (MType, bulge VMag, Distance, and γ).
Observations are simulated using 8 observations of 900s each for a
total integration time of 2hr.
Note (2): Of one resolution element (18mas at K band) at the distance to the
galaxy.
Note (3): Of best fit Nuker profile (Lauer et al. 2007, J/ApJ/664/226).
Note (4): Peak Signal-to-Noise ratio in the sensitivity simulations using
the 4mas or 9mas plate scale; integrated Signal-to-Noise ratios are
estimated from all spaxels (spatial pixels in the Integral Field
Spectrograph data cube) within a resolution element in the sensitivity
simulations.
Note (5): Based on the MBH-L relationship,
log(MBH/M☉)=8.98+1.11log(LV/1011L☉,V) from
Gultekin et al. (2009ApJ...698..198G 2009ApJ...698..198G).
Note (6): Within the radius of influence of the black hole at K band (∼18mas).
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Sylvain Guehenneux [CDS] 11-Sep-2014