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Testing the robustness of black hole mass measurements with ALMA and MUSE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2020
Abstract
We present our ongoing work of using two independent tracers to estimate the supermassive black hole mass in the nearby early-type galaxy NGC 6958; namely integrated stellar and molecular gas kinematics. We used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the adaptive-optics assisted Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) and constructed state-of-the-art dynamical models. The different methods provide black hole masses of (2.89±2.05)×108M⊙ from stellar kinematics and (1.35±0.09)×108M⊙ from molecular gas kinematics which are consistent within their 3σ uncertainties. Compared to recent MBH - σe scaling relations, we derive a slightly over-massive black hole. Our results also confirm previous findings that gas-based methods tend to provide lower black hole masses than stellar-based methods. More black hole mass measurements and an extensive analysis of the method-dependent systematics are needed in the future to understand this noticeable discrepancy.
- Type
- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium S353: Galactic Dynamics in the Era of Large Surveys , June 2019 , pp. 199 - 202
- Copyright
- © International Astronomical Union 2020
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