Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 670, Issue 1, Pages 105-115Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1086/522220
Keywords
black hole physics; galaxies : active; galaxies : nuclei; galaxies : structure; stellar dynamics
Categories
Funding
- STFC [PP/D001013/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [PP/D001013/1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We present a stellar dynamical estimate of the black hole (BH) mass in the Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 4151. We analyze ground-based spectroscopy as well as imaging data from the ground and space, and we construct three-integral axisymmetric models in order to constrain the BH mass and mass-to-light ratio. The dynamical models depend on the assumed inclination of the kinematic symmetry axis of the stellar bulge. In the case in which the bulge is assumed to be viewed edge-on, the kinematical data give only an upper limit to the mass of the BH, of similar to 4 x 10(7) M circle dot (1 sigma). If the bulge kinematic axis is assumed to have the same inclination as the symmetry axis of the large-scale galaxy disk (i.e., 23 degrees relative to the line of sight), a best-fit dynamical mass between 4 and 5; 10(7) M circle dot is obtained. However, because of the poor quality of the fit when the bulge is assumed to be inclined (as determined by the noisiness of the chi(2) surface and its minimumvalue) and becausewe lack spectroscopic data that clearly resolves the BH sphere of influence, we consider our measurements to be tentative estimates of the dynamical BH mass. With this preliminary result, NGC 4151 is now among the small sample of galaxies in which the BH mass has been constrained from two independent techniques, and the mass values we find for both bulge inclinations are in reasonable agreement with the recent estimate from reverberation mapping (4.57(-0.47)(+0.57) x 10(7) M circle dot) published by Bentz et al.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available