Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of the Active Dwarf Galaxy RGG 118

Abstract

RGG 118 (SDSS 1523+1145) is a nearby ($z=0.0243$), dwarf disk galaxy ($M_{\ast }\approx 2\times 10^9{M}_{\odot }$) found to host an active $\sim 50,000$ solar mass black hole at its core (Baldassare et al. 2015). RGG 118 is one of a growing collective sample of dwarf galaxies known to contain active galactic nuclei -- a group which, until recently, contained only a handful of objects. Here, we report on new \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} Wide Field Camera 3 UVIS and IR imaging of RGG 118, with the main goal of analyzing its structure. Using 2-D parametric modeling, we find that the morphology of RGG 118 is best described by an outer spiral disk, inner component consistent with a pseudobulge, and central PSF. The luminosity of the PSF is consistent with the central point source being dominated by the AGN. We measure the luminosity and mass of the "pseudobulge" and confirm that the central black hole in RGG 118 is under-massive with respect to the $M_{BH}-M_{\mathrm{bulge}}$ and $M_{BH}-L_{\mathrm{bulge}}$ relations. This result is consistent with a picture in which black holes in disk-dominated galaxies grow primarily through secular processes.

Accepted to Astrophysical Journal. 11 pages, 8 figures

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