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Register a new userThe High-Mass End of the Black Hole Mass Function: Mass Estimates in Brightest Cluster Galaxies
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E. Dalla Bonta
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We present Hubble Space Telescope imaging and spectroscopic observations of three Brightest Cluster Galaxies, Abell 1836-BCG, Abell 2052-BCG, and Abell 3565-BCG, obtained with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The data provide detailed information on the structure and mass profile of the stellar component, the dust optical depth, and the spatial distribution and kinematics of the ionized gas within the innermost region of each galaxy. Dynamical models, which account for the observed stellar mass profile and include the contribution of a central supermassive black hole (SBH), are constructed to reproduce the kinematics derived from the Halpha and [N II](lambda 6548,6583) emission lines. Secure SBH detection with M_bh=3.61(+0.41,-0.50)x10^9 M_sun and M_bh=1.34(+0.21,-0.19)x10^9 M_sun, respectively, are obtained for Abell 1836-BCG and Abell 3565-BCG, which show regular rotation curves and strong central velocity gradients. In the case of Abell 2052-BCG, the lack of an orderly rotational motion prevents a secure determination, although an upper limit of M_bh < 4.60x10^9 M_sun can be placed on the mass of the central SBH. These measurements represent an important step forward in the characterization of the high-mass end of the SBH mass function.
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We present the luminosity function (LF) of star clusters in M51 based on HST/ACS observations taken as part of the Hubble Heritage project. The clusters are selected based on their size and with the resulting 5990 clusters we present one of the largest cluster samples of a single galaxy. We find that the LF can be approximated with a double power-law distribution with a break around M_V = -8.9. On the bright side the index of the power-law distribution is steeper (a = 2.75) than on the faint-side (a = 1.93), similar to what was found earlier for the ``Antennae galaxies. The location of the bend, however, occurs about 1.6 mag fainter in M51. We confront the observed LF with the model for the evolution of integrated properties of cluster populations of Gieles et al., which predicts that a truncated cluster initial mass function would result in a bend in, and a double power-law behaviour of, the integrated LF. The combination of the large field-of view and the high star cluster formation rate of M51 make it possible to detect such a bend in the LF. Hence, we conclude that there exists a fundamental upper limit to the mass of star clusters in M51. Assuming a power-law cluster initial mass function with exponentional cut-off of the form NdM ~ M^-b * exp(-M/M_C)dM, we find that M_C = 10^5 M_sun. A direct comparison with the LF of the ``Antennae suggests that there M_C = 4*10^5 M_sun.
(Abridged) The repeated discovery of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of galactic bulges, and the discovery of relations between the SMBH mass (M) and the properties of these bulges, has been fundamental in directing our understanding of both galaxy and SMBH formation and evolution. However, there are still many questions surrounding the SMBH - galaxy relations. For example, are the scaling relations linear and constant throughout cosmic history, and do all SMBHs lie on the scaling relations? These questions can only be answered by further high quality direct M estimates from a wide range in redshift. In this paper we determine the observational requirements necessary to directly determine SMBH masses, across cosmological distances, using current M modeling techniques. We also discuss the SMBH detection abilities of future facilities. We find that if different M modeling techniques, using different spectral features, can be shown to be consistent, then both 30 m ground- and 16 m space-based telescopes will be able to sample M 1e9Msol across ~95% of cosmic history. However, we find that the abilities of ground-based telescopes critically depend on future advancements in adaptive optics systems; more limited AO systems will result in limited effective spatial resolutions, and forces observations towards the near-infrared where spectral features are weaker and more susceptible to sky features. Ground-based AO systems will always be constrained by relatively bright sky backgrounds and atmospheric transmission. The latter forces the use of multiple spectral features and dramatically impacts the SMBH detection efficiency. The most efficient way to advance our database of direct SMBH masses is therefore through the use of a large (16 m) space-based UVOIR telescope.
Supermassive black holes (BHs) residing in the brightest cluster galaxies are over-massive relative to the stellar bulge mass or central stellar velocity dispersion of their host galaxies. As BHs residing at the bottom of the galaxy clusters potential well may undergo physical processes that are driven by the large-scale characteristics of the galaxy clusters, it is possible that the growth of these BHs is (indirectly) governed by the properties of their host clusters. In this work, we explore the connection between the mass of BHs residing in the brightest group/cluster galaxies (BGGs/BCGs) and the virial temperature, and hence total gravitating mass, of galaxy groups/clusters. To this end, we investigate a sample of 17 BGGs/BCGs with dynamical BH mass measurements and utilize XMM-Newton X-ray observations to measure the virial temperatures and infer the $M_{rm 500}$ mass of the galaxy groups/clusters. We find that the $M_{rm BH} - kT$ relation is significantly tighter and exhibits smaller scatter than the $M_{rm BH} - M_{rm bulge}$ relations. The best-fitting power-law relations are $ log_{10} (M_{rm BH}/10^{9} rm{M_{odot}}) = 0.20 + 1.74 log_{10} (kT/1 rm{keV}) $ and $ log_{10} (M_{rm BH}/10^{9} rm{M_{odot}}) = -0.80 + 1.72 log_{10} (M_{rm bulge}/10^{11} M_{odot})$. Thus, the BH mass of BGGs/BCGs may be set by physical processes that are governed by the properties of the host galaxy group/cluster. These results are confronted with the Horizon-AGN simulation, which reproduces the observed relations well, albeit the simulated relations exhibit notably smaller scatter.
We present the high-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function using the largest sample to date (5,352) of star-forming galaxies with $M_{star} > 10^{11} M_{odot}$ at cosmic noon, $1.5 < z < 3.5$. This sample is uniformly selected across 17.2 deg$^2$ ($sim$0.44 Gpc$^3$ comoving volume from $1.5 < z < 3.5$), mitigating the effects of cosmic variance and encompassing a wide range of environments. This area, a factor of 10 larger than previous studies, provides robust statistics at the high-mass end. Using multi-wavelength data in the Spitzer/HETDEX Exploratory Large Area (SHELA) footprint we find that the SHELA footprint star-forming galaxy stellar mass function is steeply declining at the high-mass end probing values as high as $sim$$10^{-4}$ Mpc$^3$/dex and as low as $sim$5$times$$10^{-8}$ Mpc$^3$/dex across a stellar mass range of log($M_star$/$M_odot$) $sim$ 11 - 12. We compare our empirical star-forming galaxy stellar mass function at the high mass end to three types of numerical models: hydrodynamical models from IllustrisTNG, abundance matching from the UniverseMachine, and three different semi-analytic models (SAMs; SAG, SAGE, GALACTICUS). At redshifts $1.5 < z < 3.5$ we find that results from IllustrisTNG and abundance matching models agree within a factor of $sim$2 to 10, however the three SAMs strongly underestimate (up to a factor of 1,000) the number density of massive galaxies. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of galaxy evolution.
We examine the central-galaxy luminosity -- host-halo mass relation for 54 Brightest Group Galaxies (BGGs) and 92 Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) at z<0.1 and present the first measurement of this relation for a sample of known BCGs at 0.1<z<0.8 (average z~0.3). At z<0.1 we find L_K propto M_{200}^{0.24pm0.08} for the BCGs and the early-type BGGs in groups with extended X-ray emission and L_K propto M_{200}^{0.11pm0.10} for the BCGs alone. At 0.1<z<0.8 we find L_K propto M_{200}^{0.28pm0.11}. We conclude that there is no evidence for evolution in this relationship between z<0.1 and z<0.8: BCG growth appears to still be limited by the timescale for dynamical friction at these earlier times, not proceeding according to the predictions of current semi-analytic models.
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