On the M-σ Relationship and SMBH Mass Estimates of Selected Nearby Galaxies ()
ABSTRACT
Super massive black holes are believed to influence galactic
evolution and dynamics. A histogram of SMBH masses for different redshift regimes
may reveal clues on how the SMBH evolve in time. A prominent method for SMBH mass
estimation is based on the linear correlation between the bulge velocity dispersion
and the SMBH mass. Known as M-σ relationship,
this method is known to provide reasonable but not very accurate mass estimates
due to considerable scatter in data. In order to increase the precision,
we surveyed the literature and gathered SMBH and velocity dispersion data for low
redshift (z < 0.02) spiral galaxies.
We report the M-σ relationship for low
redshift spiral galaxies as,
By using this refined M-σ relationship we measured 32 SMBH masses and determined upper and lower
mass boundaries and the mass histogram for spiral galaxies in a narrow redshift
regime (0.016 < z < 0.017). The
spectroscopic data are obtained from The SLOAN Digital Survey and The National Observatory
of Turkey (TUG). The targets are selected within a low redshift range for discernible
[OIII] lines. TUG observations are carried out on the RTT150 1.5 m telescope using
TUG Faint Object Spectrographic Camera and the SLOAN data are obtained from the
7th data release of the survey. We measured the bandwidths of narrow [OIII] lines,
which are shown to be indicative in estimating stellar bulge velocity dispersion
and estimated the central black hole masses from the refined version of the empirical
M-σ relationship. The estimated masses
vary between 9.51 × 106 - 2.36 × 108 solar masses.
Share and Cite:
A. Ateş, C. Kılınç and C. İbanoğlu, "On the M-σ Relationship and SMBH Mass Estimates of Selected Nearby Galaxies,"
International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 3 No. 3A, 2013, pp. 1-9. doi:
10.4236/ijaa.2013.33A001.