WISDOM project - XIV. SMBH mass in the early-type galaxies NGC0612, NGC1574, and NGC4261 from CO dynamical modelling

Ruffa, Ilaria, Davis, Timothy A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-9379, Cappellari, Michele, Bureau, Martin, Elford, Jacob, Iguchi, Satoru, Lelli, Federico, Liang, Fu-Heng, Liu, Lijie, Lu, Anan, Sarzi, Marc and Williams, Thomas G. 2023. WISDOM project - XIV. SMBH mass in the early-type galaxies NGC0612, NGC1574, and NGC4261 from CO dynamical modelling. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 522 (4) , pp. 6170-6195. 10.1093/mnras/stad1119

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Abstract

We present a CO dynamical estimate of the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in three nearby early-type galaxies: NGC 0612, NGC 1574, and NGC 4261. Our analysis is based on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 3–6 observations of the 12CO(2–1) emission line with spatial resolutions of 14–58 pc (0.01″–0.26″). We detect disc-like CO distributions on scales from ≲ 200 pc (NGC 1574 and NGC 4261) to ≈10 kpc (NGC 0612). In NGC 0612 and NGC 1574 the bulk of the gas is regularly rotating. The data also provide evidence for the presence of a massive dark object at the centre of NGC 1574, allowing us to obtain the first measure of its mass, MBH = (1.0 ± 0.2) × 108 M⊙ (1σ uncertainty). In NGC 4261, the CO kinematics is clearly dominated by the SMBH gravitational influence, allowing us to determine an accurate black hole mass of (1.62 ± 0.04) × 109 M⊙ (1σ uncertainty). This is fully consistent with a previous CO dynamical estimate obtained using a different modelling technique. Signs of non-circular gas motions (likely outflow) are also identified in the inner regions of NGC 4261. In NGC 0612, we are only able to obtain a (conservative) upper limit of MBH ≲ 3.2 × 109 M⊙. This has likely to be ascribed to the presence of a central CO hole (with a radius much larger than that of the SMBH sphere of influence), combined with the inability of obtaining a robust prediction for the CO velocity curve. The three SMBH mass estimates are overall in agreement with predictions from the MBH − σ* relation.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Funders:	STFC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 April 2023
Date of Acceptance:	28 March 2023
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2024 18:22
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/159052

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