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We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 5 and Cycle 6 observations of CO(2$-$1) and CO(3$-$2) emission at 0.2$-$0.3 resolution in two radio-bright, brightest group/cluster early-type galaxies, NGC 315 and NGC 4261. The data resolve CO emission that extends within their black hole (BH) spheres of influence ($r_mathrm{g}$), tracing regular Keplerian rotation down to just tens of parsecs from the BHs. The projected molecular gas speeds in the highly inclined ($i>60^circ$) disks rises at least 500 km s$^{-1}$ near their galaxy centers. We fit dynamical models of thin-disk rotation directly to the ALMA data cubes, and account for the extended stellar mass distributions by constructing galaxy surface brightness profiles corrected for a range of plausible dust extinction values. The best-fit models yield $(M_mathrm{BH}/10^9,M_odot)=2.08pm0.01(mathrm{stat})^{+0.32}_{-0.14}(mathrm{sys})$ for NGC 315 and $(M_mathrm{BH}/10^9,M_odot)=1.67pm0.10(mathrm{stat})^{+0.39}_{-0.24}(mathrm{sys})$ for NGC 4261, the latter of which is larger than previous estimates by a factor of $sim$3. The BH masses are broadly consistent with the relations between BH masses and host galaxy properties. These are among the first ALMA observations to map dynamically cold gas kinematics well within the BH-dominated regions of radio galaxies, resolving the respective $r_mathrm{g}$ by factors of $sim$5$-$10. The observations demonstrate ALMAs ability to precisely measure BH masses in active galaxies, which will enable more confident probes of accretion physics for the most massive galaxies.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 3 observations of CO(2-1) emission from the circumnuclear disk in the E/S0 galaxy NGC 1332 at 0.044 resolution. The disk exhibits regular rotational kinematics and central high-velocity emission (+/-500 km/s) consistent with the presence of a compact central mass. We construct models for a thin, dynamically cold disk in the gravitational potential of the host galaxy and black hole, and fit the beam-smeared model line profiles directly to the ALMA data cube. Model fits successfully reproduce the disk kinematics out to r=200 pc. Fitting models just to spatial pixels within projected r=50 pc of the nucleus (two times larger than the black holes gravitational radius of influence), we find M_BH=6.64(-0.63,+0.65)*10^8 solar masses. This observation demonstrates ALMAs powerful capability to determine the masses of supermassive black holes by resolving gas kinematics on small angular scales in galaxy nuclei.
We present a supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass measurement in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC7469 using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the atomic-${rm [CI]}$(1-0) and molecular-$^{12}$CO(1-0) emission lines at the spatial resolution of $approx0.3$ (or $approx$ 100 pc). These emissions reveal that NGC7469 hosts a circumnuclear gas disc (CND) with a ring-like structure and a two-arm/bi-symmetric spiral pattern within it, surrounded by a starbursting ring. The CND has a relatively low $sigma/Vapprox0.35$ ($rsim0.5$) and $sim0.19$ ($r>0.5$), suggesting that the gas is dynamically settled and suitable for dynamically deriving the mass of its central source. As is expected from X-ray dominated region (XDR) effects that dramatically increase an atomic carbon abundance by dissociating CO molecules, we suggest that the atomic [CI](1-0) emission is a better probe of SMBH masses than CO emission in AGNs. Our dynamical model using the ${rm [CI]}$(1-0) kinematics yields a $M_{rm BH}=1.78^{+2.69}_{-1.10}times10^7$M$_odot$ and $M/L_{rm F547M}=2.25^{+0.40}_{-0.43}$ (M$_odot$/L$_odot$). The model using the CO(1-0) kinematics also gives a consistent $M_{rm BH}$ with a larger uncertainty, up to an order of magnitude, i.e. $M_{rm BH}=1.60^{+11.52}_{-1.45}times10^7$M$_odot$. This newly dynamical $M_{rm BH}$ is $approx$ 2 times higher than the mass determined from the reverberation mapped (RM) method using emissions arising in the unresolved broad-line region (BLR). Given this new $M_{rm BH}$, we are able to constrain the specific RM dimensionless scaling factor of $f=7.2^{+4.2}_{-3.4}$ for the AGN BLR in NGC7469. The gas within the unresolved BLR thus has a Keplerian virial velocity component and the inclination of $iapprox11.0^circ$$_{-2.5}^{+2.2}$, confirming its face-on orientation in a Seyfert 1 AGN by assuming a geometrically thin BLR model.
We present new ALMA CO(2--1) observations of two well studied group-centered elliptical galaxies: NGC~4636 and NGC~5846. In addition, we include a revised analysis of Cycle 0 ALMA observations of the central galaxy in the NGC~5044 group that has been previously published. We find evidence that molecular gas, in the form of off-center orbiting clouds, is a common presence in bright group-centered galaxies (BGG). CO line widths are $gtrsim 10$ times broader than Galactic molecular clouds, and using the reference Milky Way $X_{CO}$, the total molecular mass ranges from as low as $2.6times 10^5 M_odot$ in NGC~4636 to $6.1times 10^7 M_odot$ in NGC~5044. With these parameters the virial parameters of the molecular structures is $gg 1$. Complementary observations of NGC~5846 and NGC~4636 using the ALMA Compact Array (ACA) do not exhibit any detection of a CO diffuse component at the sensitivity level achieved by current exposures. The origin of the detected molecular features is still uncertain, but these ALMA observations suggest that they are the end product of the hot gas cooling process and not the result of merger events. Some of the molecular clouds are associated with dust features as revealed by HST dust extinction maps suggesting that these clouds formed from dust-enhanced cooling. The global nonlinear condensation may be triggered via the chaotic turbulent field or buoyant uplift. The large virial parameter of the molecular structures and correlation with the warm ($10^3 - 10^5 K$)/hot ($ge10^6$) phase velocity dispersion provide evidence that they are unbound giant molecular associations drifting in the turbulent field, consistently with numerical predictions of the chaotic cold accretion process. Alternatively, the observed large CO line widths may be generated by molecular gas flowing out from cloud surfaces due to heating by the local hot gas atmosphere.
An intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) was recently reported to reside in the centre of the Galactic globular cluster (GC) NGC 6624, based on timing observations of a millisecond pulsar (MSP) located near the cluster centre in projection. We present dynamical models with multiple mass components of NGC 6624 - without an IMBH - which successfully describe the surface brightness profile and proper motion kinematics from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the stellar mass function at different distances from the cluster centre. The maximum line-of-sight acceleration at the position of the MSP accommodates the inferred acceleration of the MSP, as derived from its first period derivative. With discrete realizations of the models we show that the higher-order period derivatives - which were previously used to derive the IMBH mass - are due to passing stars and stellar remnants, as previously shown analytically in literature. We conclude that there is no need for an IMBH to explain the timing observations of this MSP.
We present a discovery of the correlation between the X-ray spectral (photon) index and mass accretion rate observed in AGN NGC 4051. We analyzed spectral transition episodes observed in NGC 4051 using XMM/Newton, Suzaku and RXTE. We applied a scaling technique for a black hole (BH) mass evaluation which uses a correlation between the photon index and normalization of the seed (disk) component, which is proportional to a mass accretion rate. We developed an analytical model that shows the spectral (photon) index of the BH emergent spectrum undergoes an evolution from lower to higher values depending on a mass accretion rate in the accretion disk. We considered Cygnus X-1 and GRO~J1550-564 as reference sources for which distances, inclination angles and the BH masses are evaluated by dynamical measurements. Application of the scaling technique for the photon index-mass accretion rate correlation provides an estimate of the black hole mass in NGC 4051 to be more than 6x10^5 solar masses.