WISDOM Project -- XXVIII. Molecular gas measurement of the supermassive black hole mass of the galaxy NGC 1387

Abstract

Supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses can be measured using molecular gas kinematics. Here we present high angular resolution ($0.12$ arcsec or $\approx 11$ pc) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the ${}^{12}$CO(2-1) line emission of the early-type galaxy NGC 1387. The observations reveal a face-on, regularly-rotating central molecular gas disc with a diameter of $\approx 18$ arcsec ($\approx 1.7$ kpc) and a central depression slightly larger than the SMBH sphere of influence. We forward model the CO data cube in a Bayesian framework with the \textsc{Kinematic Molecular Simulation} code, and use \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} data to constrain the stellar gravitational potential contribution to the molecular gas kinematics. We infer a SMBH mass of $1.10_{-0.95}^{+1.71}[\text{stat},3\ddot{I}ƒ{]}_{-1.09}^{+2.45}[\text{sys}]\times 10^8$ M${}_{\odot }$ and a F160W-filter stellar mass-to-light ratio of $0.90_{-0.35}^{+0.44}[\text{stat},3\ddot{I}ƒ{]}_{-0.36}^{+0.46}[\text{sys}]$ M${}_{\odot }$/L${}_{\odot ,\text{F160W}}$. This SMBH mass is consistent with the SMBH mass -- stellar velocity dispersion relation.

13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS