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Register a new userA Local Baseline of the Black Hole Mass Scaling Relations for Active Galaxies. III. The BH mass - $sigma$ relation
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We create a baseline of the black hole (BH) mass (MBH) - stellar-velocity dispersion (sigma) relation for active galaxies, using a sample of 66 local (0.02<z<0.09) Seyfert-1 galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Analysis of SDSS images yields AGN luminosities free of host-galaxy contamination and morphological classification. 51/66 galaxies have spiral morphology. 28 bulges have Sersic index n<2 and are considered candidate pseudo bulges, with eight being definite pseudo bulges based on multiple classification criteria met. Only 4/66 galaxies show sign of interaction/merging. High signal-to-noise ratio Keck spectra provide the width of the broad Hbeta emission line free of FeII emission and stellar absorption. AGN luminosity and Hbeta line widths are used to estimate MBH. The Keck-based spatially-resolved kinematics is used to determine stellar-velocity dispersion within the spheroid effective radius. We find that sigma can vary on average by up to 40% across definitions commonly used in the literature, emphasizing the importance of using self-consistent definitions in comparisons and evolutionary studies. The MBH-sigma relation for our Seyfert-1 galaxies has the same intercept and scatter as that of reverberation-mapped AGNs as well as quiescent galaxies, consistent with the hypothesis that our single epoch MBH estimator and sample selection do not introduce significant biases. Barred galaxies, merging galaxies, and those hosting pseudo bulges do not represent outliers in the MBH-sigma relation. This is in contrast with previous work, although no firm conclusion can be drawn due to the small sample size and limited resolution of the SDSS images.
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The tight correlations between the mass of supermassive black holes ($M_{rm BH}$) and their host-galaxy properties have been of great interest to the astrophysical community, but a clear understanding of their origin and fundamental drivers still eludes us. The local relations for active galaxies are interesting in their own right and form the foundation for any evolutionary study over cosmic time. We present Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging of a sample of 66 local active galactic nuclei (AGNs); for 14 objects, we also obtained Gemini near-infrared images. We use state of the art methods to perform surface photometry of the AGN host galaxies, decomposing them in spheroid, disk and bar (when present) and inferring the luminosity and stellar mass of the components. We combine this information with spatially-resolved kinematics obtained at the Keck Telescopes to study the correlations between $M_{rm BH}$ (determined from single-epoch virial estimators) and host galaxy properties. The correlations are uniformly tight for our AGN sample, with intrinsic scatter 0.2-0.4 dex, smaller than or equal to that of quiescent galaxies. We find no difference between pseudo and classical bulges or barred and non-barred galaxies. We show that all the tight correlations can be simultaneously satisfied by AGN hosts in the 10$^7$-10$^9$ $M_{odot}$ regime, with data of sufficient quality. The MBH-$sigma$ relation is also in agreement with that of AGNs with $M_{rm BH}$ obtained from reverberation mapping, providing an indirect validation of single-epoch virial estimators of $M_{rm BH}$.
We present high-quality Keck/LRIS longslit spectroscopy of a pilot sample of 25 local active galaxies selected from the SDSS (0.02<z<0.1; MBH>10^7 M_sun) to study the relations between black hole mass (MBH) and host-galaxy properties. We determine stellar kinematics of the host galaxy, deriving stellar-velocity dispersion profiles and rotation curves from three spectral regions (including CaH&K, MgIb triplet, and CaII triplet). In addition, we perform surface photometry on SDSS images, using a newly developed code for joint multi-band analysis. BH masses are estimated from the width of the Hbeta emission line and the host-galaxy free 5100A AGN luminosity. Combining results from spectroscopy and imaging allows us to study four MBH scaling relations: MBH-sigma, MBH-L(sph), MBH-M(sph,*), MBH-M(sph,dyn). We find the following results. First, stellar-velocity dispersions determined from aperture spectra (e.g. SDSS fiber spectra or unresolved data from distant galaxies) can be biased, depending on aperture size, AGN contamination, and host-galaxy morphology. However, such a bias cannot explain the offset seen in the MBH-sigma relation at higher redshifts. Second, while the CaT region is the cleanest to determine stellar-velocity dispersions, both the MgIb region, corrected for FeII emission, and the CaHK region, although often swamped by the AGN powerlaw continuum and emission lines, can give results accurate to within a few percent. Third, the MBH scaling relations of our pilot sample agree in slope and scatter with those of other local active and inactive galaxies. In the next papers of the series we will quantify the scaling relations, exploiting the full sample of ~100 objects.
The sample of dwarf galaxies with measured central black hole masses $M$ and velocity dispersions $sigma$ has recently doubled, and gives a close fit to the extrapolation of the $M propto sigma$ relation for more massive galaxies. We argue that this is difficult to reconcile with suggestions that the scaling relations between galaxies and their central black holes are simply a statistical consequence of assembly through repeated mergers. This predicts black hole masses significantly larger than those observed in dwarf galaxies unless the initial distribution of uncorrelated seed black hole and stellar masses is confined to much smaller masses than earlier assumed. It also predicts a noticeable flattening of the $M propto sigma$ relation for dwarfs, to $M propto sigma^2$ compared with the observed $M propto sigma^4$. In contrast black hole feedback predicts that black hole masses tend towards a universal $M propto sigma^4$ relation in all galaxies, and correctly gives the properties of powerful outflows recently observed in dwarf galaxies. These considerations emphasize once again that the fundamental physical black-hole -- galaxy scaling relation is between $M$ and $sigma$. The relation of $M$ to the bulge mass $M_b$ is acausal, and depends on the quite independent connection between $M_b$ and $sigma$ set by stellar feedback.
We explore the effect of varying the mass of the seed black hole on the resulting black hole mass - bulge mass relation at z ~ 0, using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation combined with large cosmological N-body simulations. We constrain our model by requiring the observed properties of galaxies at z ~ 0 are reproduced. In keeping with previous semi-analytic models, we place a seed black hole immediately after a galaxy forms. When the mass of the seed is set at 10^5 M_sun, we find that the model results become inconsistent with recent observational results of the black hole mass - bulge mass relation for dwarf galaxies. In particular, the model predicts that bulges with ~ 10^9 M_sun harbour larger black holes than observed. On the other hand, when we employ seed black holes with 10^3 M_sun, or randomly select their mass within a 10^(3-5) M_sun range, the resulting relation is consistent with observation estimates, including the observed dispersion. We find that to obtain stronger constraints on the mass of seed black holes, observations of less massive bulges at z ~ 0 are a more powerful comparison than the relations at higher redshifts.
Recent studies of active galactic nuclei (AGN) found a statistical inverse linear scaling between the X-ray normalized excess variance $sigma_{rm rms}^2$ (variability amplitude) and the black hole mass spanning over $M_{rm BH}=10^6- 10^9 M_{odot}$. Being suggested to have a small scatter, this scaling relation may provide a novel method to estimate the black hole mass of AGN. However, a question arises as to whether this relation can be extended to the low-mass regime below $sim10^6 M_{odot}$. If confirmed, it would provide an efficient tool to search for AGN with low-mass black holes using X-ray variability. This paper presents a study of the X-ray excess variances for a sample of AGN with black hole masses in the range of $10^5- 10^6 M_{odot}$ observed with {it XMM-Newton} and {it ROSAT}, including data both from the archives and from newly preformed observations. It is found that the relation is no longer a simple extrapolation of the linear scaling; instead, the relation starts to flatten at $sim10^6 M_{odot}$ toward lower masses. Our result is consistent with the recent finding of citet{L15}. Such a flattening of the $M_{rm BH}-sigma_{rm rms}^2$ relation is actually expected from the shape of the power spectrum density of AGN, whose break frequency is inversely scaled with the mass of black holes.
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