Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T09:11:42.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Upper limits on the mass of supermassive black holes from STIS archival data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

A. Beifiori
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo dell'Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy email: alessandra.beifiori@unipd.it, enricomaria.corsini@unipd.it, elena.dallabonta@unipd.it, alessandro.pizzella@unipd.it, francesco.bertola@unipd.it
E. M. Corsini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo dell'Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy email: alessandra.beifiori@unipd.it, enricomaria.corsini@unipd.it, elena.dallabonta@unipd.it, alessandro.pizzella@unipd.it, francesco.bertola@unipd.it
E. Dalla Bontà
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo dell'Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy email: alessandra.beifiori@unipd.it, enricomaria.corsini@unipd.it, elena.dallabonta@unipd.it, alessandro.pizzella@unipd.it, francesco.bertola@unipd.it
A. Pizzella
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo dell'Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy email: alessandra.beifiori@unipd.it, enricomaria.corsini@unipd.it, elena.dallabonta@unipd.it, alessandro.pizzella@unipd.it, francesco.bertola@unipd.it
L. Coccato
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany email: lcoccato@mpe.mpg.de
M. Sarzi
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK email: m.sarzi@herts.ac.uk
F. Bertola
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo dell'Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy email: alessandra.beifiori@unipd.it, enricomaria.corsini@unipd.it, elena.dallabonta@unipd.it, alessandro.pizzella@unipd.it, francesco.bertola@unipd.it
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) appears to be closely linked with the formation of spheroids. There is a pressing need to acquire better statistics on SMBH masses, since the existing samples are preferentially weighted toward early-type galaxies with very massive SMBHs. With this motivation we started a project aimed at measuring upper limits on the mass of the SMBHs that can be present in the center of all the nearby galaxies (D < 100 Mpc) for which STIS/G750M spectra are available in the HST archive. These upper limits will be derived by modeling the central emission-line widths ([N II] λλ6548, 6583, Hα and [S II] λλ6716, 6731) observed over an aperture of ~01 (R < 50 pc). Here we present our preliminary results for a subsample of 76 bulges.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Coccato, L., et al. 2006, MNRAS, 366, 1050CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrarese, L. & Ford, H. 2005, Sp. Sci. Rev. 116, 523CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarzi, M., et al. 2002, ApJ, 567, 237CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verdoes Kleijn, G. A., van der Marel, R. P., & Noel-Storr, J. 2006, AJ, 131, 1961CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vittorini, V., Shankar, F., & Cavaliere, A. 2005, MNRAS, 363, 1376VCrossRefGoogle Scholar