Measurement of the Black Hole Mass in NGC 1332 from ALMA Observations at 0.044 arcsecond Resolution
Abstract
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-1) 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 hole’s gravitational radius of influence), we find {M}{BH}=({6.64}-0.63+0.65)× {10}8 {M}⊙ . This observation demonstrates ALMA’s powerful capability to determine the masses of supermassive black holes by resolving gas kinematics on small angular scales in galaxy nuclei.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 2016
- DOI:
- 10.3847/2041-8205/822/2/L28
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1605.01346
- Bibcode:
- 2016ApJ...822L..28B
- Keywords:
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- galaxies: bulges;
- galaxies: individual: NGC 1332;
- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics;
- galaxies: nuclei;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters