Abstract
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses can be measured using molecular gas kinematics. Here we present high-angular-resolution (0.12 arcsec or ≈11 pc) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the 12CO(2-1) line emission of the early-type galaxy NGC 1387. The observations reveal a face-on, regularly rotating central molecular gas disc with a diameter of ≈18 arcsec (≈1.7 kpc) and a central depression slightly larger than the SMBH sphere of influence. We forward model the CO data cube in a Bayesian framework with the Kinematic Molecular Simulation code, and use Hubble Space Telescope data to constrain the stellar gravitational potential contribution to the molecular gas kinematics. We infer a SMBH mass of 1.10+1.71−0.95 [stat, 3σ] +2.45−1.09 [sys] × 108 M⊙ and a F160W-filter stellar mass-to-light ratio of 0.90+0.44−0.35 [stat, 3σ] +0.46−0.36 [sys] M⊙/L⊙,F160W. This SMBH mass is consistent with the SMBH mass – stellar velocity dispersion relation.
WISDOM Project - XXVIII. Molecular gas measurement of the supermassive black hole mass of the galaxy NGC 1387
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 548, 1, stag546
Dominiak, Pandora; Bureau, Martin; Liang, Fu-Heng; Cappellari, Michele; Davis, Timothy A.; Lelli, Federico; Ruffa, Ilaria; Williams, Thomas G.; Zhang, Hengyue
(ADS) / (arXiv)