J/ApJ/817/2 High angular resolution spectroscopy of NGC 1277 (Walsh+, 2016)
A 5x109 M☉ black hole in NGC 1277 from adaptive optics spectroscopy.
Walsh J.L., van den Bosch R.C.E., Gebhardt K., Yildirim A., Richstone D.O.,
Gultekin K., Husemann B.
<Astrophys. J., 817, 2 (2016)>
=2016ApJ...817....2W 2016ApJ...817....2W (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, nearby ; Radial velocities ; Velocity dispersion ;
Spectra, infrared
Keywords: black hole physics; galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD;
galaxies: individual: NGC 1277;
galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; galaxies: nuclei
Abstract:
The nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 1277 is thought to host one of the
largest black holes known, however the black hole mass measurement is
based on low spatial resolution spectroscopy. In this paper, we
present Gemini Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrometer observations
assisted by adaptive optics. We map out the galaxy's stellar
kinematics within ∼440pc of the nucleus with an angular resolution
that allows us to probe well within the region where the potential
from the black hole dominates. We find that the stellar velocity
dispersion rises dramatically, reaching ∼550km/s at the center.
Through orbit-based, stellar-dynamical models we obtain a black hole
mass of (4.9±1.6)x109M☉ (1σ uncertainties). Although
the black hole mass measurement is smaller by a factor of ∼3 compared
to previous claims based on large-scale kinematics, NGC 1277 does
indeed contain one of the most massive black holes detected to date,
and the black hole mass is an order of magnitude larger than
expectations from the empirical relation between black hole mass and
galaxy luminosity. Given the galaxy's similarities to the higher
redshift (z∼2) massive quiescent galaxies, NGC 1277 could be a relic,
passively evolving since that period. A population of local analogs to
the higher redshift quiescent galaxies that also contain over-massive
black holes may suggest that black hole growth precedes that of the
host galaxy.
Description:
We obtained high angular resolution spectroscopy of NGC 1277 using the
Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS) with the ALTtitude
conjugate Adaptive optics for the InfraRed system on the Gemini North
telescope. The observations were taken as part of program
GN-2011B-Q-27 over the course of four nights, spanning from 2012
October 30 to 2012 December 27. We observed NGC 1277 using 600s
object-sky-object exposures with the H+K filter and K grating centered
on 2.2µm.
Objects:
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RA (ICRS) DE Designation(s)
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03 19 51.49 +41 34 24.3 NGC 1277 = MCG+07-07-064
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File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 69 105 Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS)
kinematics
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See also:
J/ApJ/808/183 : NGC1271 stellar kinematics (Walsh+, 2015)
J/ApJ/805/96 : SDSS-RM project: velocity dispersions of QSOs (Shen+, 2015)
J/A+A/578/A134 : Compact early-type galaxies in SDSS (Saulder+, 2015)
J/ApJS/218/10 : HET Massive Galaxy Survey (HETMGS) (van den Bosch+, 2015)
J/AJ/146/45 : Spectroscopy of 6 early-type galaxies (Rusli+, 2013)
J/ApJ/708/137 : Broad-line AGNs in zCOSMOS survey (Merloni+, 2010)
J/MNRAS/371/703 : MILES library of empirical spectra (Sanchez-Blazquez+, 2006)
J/ApJS/152/251 : Indo-US library of coude feed stellar spectra (Valdes+, 2004)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 6 F6.3 arcsec x [-0.79/0.83] Voronoi bin x generator (1)
8- 13 F6.3 arcsec y [-0.79/0.73] Voronoi bin y generator
15- 22 F8.3 km/s RVel [-349/358] Radial velocity
24- 28 F5.3 km/s e_RVel [4/10] Uncertainty in RVel
30- 36 F7.3 km/s sigma [237/580] Velocity dispersion
38- 43 F6.3 km/s e_sigma [5/18] Uncertainty in sigma
45- 50 F6.3 --- h3 [-0.31/0.23] Gauss-Hermite h3 moment (2)
52- 56 F5.3 --- e_h3 [0.01/0.03] Uncertainty in h3
58- 63 F6.3 --- h4 [-0.04/0.17] Gauss-Hermite h4 moment (3)
65- 69 F5.3 --- e_h4 [0.01/0.03] Uncertainty in h4
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Note (1): The position angle is 177.24 degree counterclockwise from the
galaxy's major axis to x.
Note (2): Corresponding to the line-of-sight velocity distribution's
asymmetric deviation from a Gaussian.
Note (3): Corresponding to the line-of-sight velocity distribution's
symmetric deviation from a Gaussian.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 30-Mar-2016