Constraining black hole masses in low-accreting AGN using X-ray spectra

Abstract

In a recent work we demonstrated that a novel X-ray scaling method, originally introduced for Galactic black holes (GBHs), can be reliably extended to estimate the mass of supermassive black holes accreting at a moderate to high level. Here we investigate the limits of applicability of this method to low-accreting active galactic nuclei, using a control sample with good-quality X-ray data and dynamically measured mass. For low-accreting AGNs, because the basic assumption that the photon index positively correlates with the accretion rate no longer holds the X-ray scaling method cannot be used. Nevertheless, the inverse correlation in the Gamma-Lx/LEdd diagram, found in several low-accreting black holes and confirmed by this sample, can be used to constrain black hole mass within a factor of ~10 from the dynamically determined values. We provide a simple recipe to determine black hole mass using solely X-ray spectral data, which can be used as a sanity check for black hole mass determination based on indirect optical methods.

16 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables

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• The inner view of NGC 1052 using multiple X-ray observations
• Coronal Properties of Low-Accreting AGNs using Swift, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR Observations
• Fundamental Reference AGN Monitoring Experiment (FRAMEx) III: Radio Emission in the Immediate Vicinity of Radio Quiet AGNs
• Assessing indirect methods to determine black hole masses using NGC 4151
• Measuring the black hole mass in Ultraluminous X-ray Sources with the X-ray Scaling Method
• Estimating black hole masses in obscured AGN using X-rays
• Correlation analysis of radio properties and accretion-disk luminosity for low luminosity AGNs
• The advection-dominated accretion flow for the anti-correlation between the X-ray photon index and the X-ray luminosity in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries
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