Discovery of a Relationship between Spiral Arm Morphology and Supermassive Black Hole Mass in Disk Galaxies

Seigar, Marc S.; Kennefick, Daniel; Kennefick, Julia; Lacy, Claud H.

doi:10.1086/588727

Cited by 106 publications

(171 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Furthermore, all relations used have weak points, such as the large intrinsic scatter of the FP-BH, the different regression slopes of the M BH − L sph relation (a consequence of the relatively small available galaxy sample in the low-mass end), and the lack of a robust physical interpretation of the M BH − PA relation. Additionally, the M BH − PA estimations may suffer from wavelength-dependent estimations of the pitch angle (see e.g., Grosbol & Patsis 1998;Martínez-García 2012;Martínez-García et al 2014, but also Seigar et al 2008;Davis et al 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in galaxies with low-luminosity AGN: a multiple-method approach

Koliopanos

Ciambur

Graham

et al. 2017

A&A

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Aims. This work is the first stage of a campaign to search for intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN) and dwarf galaxies. An additional and equally important aim of this pilot study is to investigate the consistency between the predictions of several popular black hole scaling relations and the fundamental plane (FP) of black-hole activity (FP-BH). Methods. We used well established X-ray and radio luminosity relations in accreting black holes, along with the latest scaling relations between the mass of the central black hole (M BH ) and the properties of its host spheroid, to predict M BH in seven LLAGN, that were previously reported to be in the IMBH regime. Namely, we used the recently re-evaluated M BH − M sph (M sph : spheroid absolute magnitude at 3.6 µm) scaling relation for spiral galaxies, the M BH − n sph (n sph : major axis Sérsic index of the spheroid component) relation, the M BH − PA (PA: spiral pitch angle) relation, and a recently re-calibrated version of the FP-BH for weakly accreting BHs, to independently estimate M BH in all seven galaxies. Results. We find that all LLAGN in our list have low-mass central black holes with log M BH /M ≈ 6.5 on average, but that they are, most likely, not IMBHs. All four methods used predicted consistent BH masses in the 1σ range. Furthermore, we report that, in contrast to previous classification, galaxy NGC 4470 is bulge-less, and we also cast doubts on the AGN classification of NGC 3507. Conclusions. We find that our latest, state-of-the-art techniques for bulge magnitude & Sérsic index computations and the most recent updates of the M BH − L sph , M BH − n sph , and M BH − PA relations and the FP-BH produce consistent results in the low-mass regime. We thus establish a multiple-method approach for predicting BH masses in the regime where their spheres of gravitational influence cannot be spatially resolved. Our approach mitigates against outliers from any one relation and provides a more robust average prediction. We will use our new method to revisit more IMBH candidates in LLAGN.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in galaxies with low-luminosity AGN: a multiple-method approach

Koliopanos

Ciambur

Graham

et al. 2017

A&A

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“…THE M BH -(SPIRAL ARM PITCH ANGLE) CONNECTION While the applicability of the M bh -M halo relation in lower mass spiral galaxies is unclear, there is a somewhat complementary relation which only operates in spiral galaxies. Seigar et al (2008;see also Ringermacher & Mead 2009;Treuthardt et al 2012 andBerrier et al 2013) have presented the relation between black hole mass and spiral arm pitch angle. The spiral arm pitch angle (e.g.…”

Section: Globular Cluster Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Galaxy Bulges and Their Massive Black Holes: A Review

Graham

2016

Astrophysics and Space Science Library

121

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With references to both key and oft-forgotten pioneering works, this article starts by presenting a review into how we came to believe in the existence of massive black holes at the centres of galaxies. It then presents the historical development of the near-linear (black hole)-(host spheroid) mass relation, before explaining why this has recently been dramatically revised. Past disagreement over the slope of the (black hole)-(velocity dispersion) relation is also explained, and the discovery of substructure within the (black hole)-(velocity dispersion) diagram is discussed. As the search for the fundamental connection between massive black holes and their host galaxies continues, the competing array of additional black hole mass scaling relations for samples of predominantly inactive galaxies are presented.

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“…Studies have shown that there is a correlation between the SMBH mass and a number of measurable features of the host galaxy due to the interaction between the SMBH and its surroundings. Some of the properties known to correlate well with the SMBH mass are the bulge luminosity (L Bulge ; Kormendy & Richstone 1995;Marconi & Hunt 2003), the bulge mass (M Bulge ; Kormendy & Richstone 1995;Marconi & Hunt 2003;Häring & Rix 2004), the mean velocity dispersion (σ) of the bulge stars (Ferrarese & Merritt 2000;Gebhardt et al 2000), the Sérsic index (n) of the majoraxis surface brightness profile , and the pitch angle (P ) of spiral arms in disk galaxies (Seigar et al 2008;Berrier et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE LOCAL BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION DERIVED FROM THE M_BH–P AND THE M_BH–n RELATIONS

Mutlu-Pakdil

Seigar

Davis

2016

ApJ

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We present a determination of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass function for early-and latetype galaxies in the nearby universe (z < 0.0057), established from a volume-limited sample consisting of a statistically complete collection of the brightest spiral galaxies in the southern hemisphere. The sample is defined by limiting luminosity (redshift-independent) distance, D L = 25.4 Mpc, and a limiting absolute B-band magnitude, M B = −19.12. These limits define a sample of 140 spiral, 30 elliptical (E), and 38 lenticular (S0) galaxies. We established the Sérsic index distribution for earlytype (E/S0) galaxies in our sample. Davis et al. (2014) established the pitch angle distribution for their sample, which is identical to our late-type (spiral) galaxy sample. We then used the pitch angle and the Sérsic index distributions in order to estimate the SMBH mass function for our volume-limited sample. The observational simplicity of our approach relies on the empirical relation between the mass of the central SMBH and the Sérsic index ) for an early-type galaxy or the logarithmic spiral arm pitch angle (Berrier et al. 2013) for a spiral galaxy. Our SMBH mass function agrees well at the high-mass end with previous values in the literature. At the low-mass end, while inconsistencies exist in previous works that still need to be resolved, our work is more in line with expectations based on modeling of black hole evolution.

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Discovery of a Relationship between Spiral Arm Morphology and Supermassive Black Hole Mass in Disk Galaxies

Cited by 106 publications

References 45 publications

Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in galaxies with low-luminosity AGN: a multiple-method approach

Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in galaxies with low-luminosity AGN: a multiple-method approach

Galaxy Bulges and Their Massive Black Holes: A Review

THE LOCAL BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION DERIVED FROM THE M_BH–P AND THE M_BH–n RELATIONS

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Discovery of a Relationship between Spiral Arm Morphology and Supermassive Black Hole Mass in Disk Galaxies

Cited by 106 publications

References 45 publications

Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in galaxies with low-luminosity AGN: a multiple-method approach

Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in galaxies with low-luminosity AGN: a multiple-method approach

Galaxy Bulges and Their Massive Black Holes: A Review

THE LOCAL BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION DERIVED FROM THE MBH–P AND THE MBH–n RELATIONS

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THE LOCAL BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION DERIVED FROM THE M_BH–P AND THE M_BH–n RELATIONS