The Central Kinematics and Black Hole Mass of 4C+37.11

Abstract

We report on IFU measurements of the host of the radio source 4C+37.11. This massive elliptical contains the only resolved double compact nucleus at pc-scale separation, likely a bound supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB). $i$-band photometry and GMOS-N IFU spectroscopy show that the galaxy has a large $r_b=1.5^{\prime \prime }$ core and that the stellar velocity dispersion increases inside of a radius of influence $r_{\mathrm{SOI}}\approx 1.3^{\prime \prime }$. Jeans Anisotropic Modeling analysis of the core infers a total SMBHB mass of $2.8_{-0.8}^{+0.8}\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$, making this one of the most massive black hole systems known. Our data indicate that there has been significant scouring of the central kpc of the host galaxy.

To appear in the Astrophysical Journal