The mass of the black hole in Arp 151 from bayesian modeling of reverberation mapping data

Author Info

Brendon J. Brewer, University of California - Santa Barbara
Tommaso Treu, University of California - Santa Barbara
Anna Pancoast, University of California - Santa Barbara
Aaron J. Barth, University of California - Irvine
Vardha N. Bennert, University of California - Santa BarbaraFollow
Misty C. Bentz, Georgia State University
Alexei V. Filippenko, University of California - Berkeley
Jenney E. Greene, University of Texas at Austin
Matthew A. Malkan, University of California - Los Angeles
Jong-Hak Woo, Seoul National University

Recommended Citation

Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 733, Issue 2, June 1, 2011, pages 1-6.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/733/2/L33.

Abstract

Supermassive black holes are believed to be ubiquitous at the centers of galaxies. Measuring their masses is extremely challenging yet essential for understanding their role in the formation and evolution of cosmic structure. We present a direct measurement of the mass of a black hole in an active galactic nucleus (Arp 151) based on the motion of the gas responsible for the broad emission lines. By analyzing and modeling spectroscopic and photometric time series, we find that the gas is well described by a disk or torus with an average radius of 3.99 ± 1.25 light days and an opening angle of 68.9^+21.4 _{– 17.2} deg, viewed at an inclination angle of 67.8 ± 7.8 deg (that is, closer to face-on than edge-on). The black hole mass is inferred to be 10^{6.51 ± 0.28} M _☉. The method is fully general and can be used to determine the masses of black holes at arbitrary distances, enabling studies of their evolution over cosmic time.

Disciplines

Physics

Copyright

2011 IOP Publishing.