Evidence for an accreting massive black hole in He 2-10 from adaptive optics integral field spectroscopy

Abstract

Henize 2-10 is a blue dwarf galaxy with intense star formation and one the most intriguing question about it is whether or not it hosts an accretingmassive black hole. We use H and K-band integral field spectra of the inner 130 pc$\times$130 pc of He 2-10 to investigate the emission and kinematics of the gas at unprecedented spatial resolution. The observations were done using the Gemini Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) operating with the ALTAIR adaptive optics module and the resulting spatial resolutions are 6.5 pc and 8.6 pc in the K and H bands, respectively. Most of the line emission is due to excitation of the gas by photo-ionization and shocks produced by the star forming regions. In addition, our data provide evidence of emission of gas excited by an active galactic nucleus located at the position of the radio and X-ray sources, as revealed by the analysis of the emission-line ratios. The emission lines from the ionized gas in the field present two kinematic components: one narrow with a velocity field suggesting a disk rotation and a broad component due to winds from the star forming regions. The molecular gas shows only the narrow component. The stellar velocity dispersion map presents an enhancement of about 7 km s${}^{-1}$ at the position of the black hole, consistent with a mass of $1.5_{-1.3}^{+1.3}\times 10^6$ M${}_{\odot }$.

Published in MNRAS,Version with corrections in the axes labels of some maps

References in corpus (12)

• Improving the full spectrum fitting method: accurate convolution with Gauss-Hermite functions
• An actively accreting massive black hole in the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10
• A 0.8-2.4 microns spectral atlas of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Mapping of the molecular gas inflow towards the Seyfert nucleus of NGC4051 using Gemini NIFS
• Probing the near infrared stellar population of Seyfert galaxies
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - IV: Near-Infrared Coronal Lines, Hidden Broad Lines, and Correlation with Hard X-ray Emission
• Understanding the two-dimensional ionization structure in luminous infrared galaxies. A near-IR integral field spectroscopy perspective
• Integral field near-infrared spectroscopy of II Zw 40
• Extended Structure and Fate of the Nucleus in Henize 2-10
• Deep Chandra Observations of the Compact Starburst Galaxy Henize 2-10: X-rays from the Massive Black Hole
• A close look at the dwarf AGN of NGC 4395: optical and near-IR integral field spectroscopy
• Star-gas decoupling and a non-rotating stellar core in He 2-10: Integral field spectroscopy with FLAMES/ARGUS

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Black hole triggered star formation in the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10
• Integral-Field Spectroscopy of Fast Outflows in Dwarf Galaxies with AGN
• The AGNIFS survey: distribution and excitation of the hot molecular and ionised gas in the inner kpc of nearby AGN hosts
• Ionized and hot molecular outflows in the inner 500 pc of NGC1275
• The Diverse Morphologies and Structures of Dwarf Galaxies Hosting Optically-Selected Active Massive Black Holes
• Towards a More Complex Understanding of Natal Super Star Clusters with Multiwavelength Observations
• Growing a nuclear star cluster from star formation and cluster mergers: The JWST NIRSpec view of NGC 4654
• Revisiting the Gas Dynamics of Henize 2-10: Possible Drivers of the Starburst