Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Calibration of the Black Hole Mass-Velocity Dispersion Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
Abstract
We calibrate reverberation-based black hole (BH) masses in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by using the correlation between BH mass, MBH, and bulge/spheroid stellar velocity dispersion, σ*. We use new measurements of σ* for six AGNs and published velocity dispersions for 10 others, in conjunction with improved reverberation-mapping results, to determine the scaling factor required to bring reverberation-based BH masses into agreement with the quiescent galaxy MBH-σ* relationship. The scatter in the AGN BH masses is found to be less than a factor of 3. The current observational uncertainties preclude the use of the scaling factor to discriminate between broad-line region models.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1086/424655
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0407297
- Bibcode:
- 2004ApJ...615..645O
- Keywords:
-
- Black Hole Physics;
- Galaxies: Active;
- Galaxies: Nuclei;
- Galaxies: Seyfert;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 16 pages, including 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ