Supermassive black holes in the Sbc spiral galaxies NGC 3310, NGC 4303 and NGC 4258

Abstract

We present new Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) observations of three spiral galaxies, NGC 4303, NGC 3310 and NGC 4258. The bright optical emission lines H$\alpha$ $\lambda$ $6564\mathring{A}$, [NII] $\lambda$$\lambda$ $6549,6585\mathring{A}$ and [SII] $\lambda$$\lambda$ $6718,6732\mathring{A}$ were used to study the kinematics of the ionized gas in the nuclear region of each galaxy with a $\sim 0.07\arcsec$ spatial resolution. In NGC 3310, the observed gas kinematics is well matched by a circularly rotating disk model but we are only able to set an upper limit to the BH mass which, taking into account the allowed disk inclinations, varies in the range $5.0\times 10^6-4.2\times 10^7{M}_{\odot }$ at the 95% confidence level. In NGC 4303 the kinematical data require the presence of a BH with mass $M_{BH}=(5.0{)}_{-2.26}^{+0.87}\times 10^6{M}_{\odot }$ (for a disk inclination $i=70$ deg).In NGC 4258, the observed kinematics require the presence of a black hole with $M_{BH}=(7.9{)}_{-3.5}^{+6.2}\times 10^7{M}_{\odot }$ ($i=60$ deg). This result is in good agreement with the published value $(3.9\pm 0.1)\times 10^7{M}_{\odot }$, derived from $H_{2}O$-maser observations. Our attempt at measuring BH masses in these 3 late type Sbc spiral galaxies has shown that these measurements are very challenging and at the limit of the highest spatial resolution currently available. Nonetheless our estimates are in good agreement with the scaling relations between black holes and their host spheroids suggesting that (i) they are reliable and (ii) black holes in spiral galaxies follows the same scaling relations as those in more massive early-type galaxies. A crucial test for the gas kinematical method, the correct recovery of the known BH mass in NGC 4258, has been successful. [abridged]

24 pages, 21 figures, A&A in press

References in corpus (1)

• The Black Hole in NGC 3379: A Comparison of Gas and Stellar Dynamical Mass Measurements with HST and Integral-Field Data

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Unification of the Fundamental Plane and Super-Massive Black Holes Masses
• The black hole mass -- stellar velocity dispersion correlation: bulges versus pseudobulges
• The Fundamental Plane of Accretion Onto Black Holes with Dynamical Masses
• Circumnuclear Gas in Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Morphology, Kinematics, and Direct Measurement of Black Hole Masses
• The Fundamental Plane of Black Hole Accretion and its Use as a Black Hole-Mass Estimator
• Accretion disk luminosity for black holes surrounded by dark matter with tangential pressure
• The benchmark black hole in NGC 4258: dynamical models from high-resolution two-dimensional stellar kinematics
• A low upper mass limit for the central black hole in the late-type galaxy NGC 4414
• The Blackhole-Dark Matter Halo Connection
• Type II-P Supernova Progenitor Star Initial Masses and SN 2020jfo: Direct Detection, Light Curve Properties, Nebular Spectroscopy, and Local Environment
• WISDOM project -- VI. Exploring the relation between supermassive black hole mass and galaxy rotation with molecular gas
• Constraining black hole masses in low-accreting AGN using X-ray spectra
• Role of galactic bars in the formation of spiral arms: A study through orbital and escape dynamics -- I
• Central X-ray point-sources found to be abundant in low-mass, late-type galaxies predicted to contain an intermediate-mass black hole
• Quasar Host Galaxies in the FORS Deep Field
• WISDOM project -- XVIII. Molecular gas distributions and kinematics of three megamaser galaxies
• Past, present and Future of the Scaling Relations of Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Cross-checking SMBH mass estimates in NGC 6958 -- I: Stellar dynamics from adaptive optics-assisted MUSE observations
• Relativistic Jets in Gamma-Ray-Emitting Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies