Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Calibration of the Black Hole Mass-Velocity Dispersion Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei

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  • Christopher A. Onken
  • Laura Ferrarese
  • David Merritt
  • Bradley M. Peterson
  • Richard W. Pogge
  • Vestergaard, Marianne
  • Amri Wandel
We calibrate reverberation-based black hole masses in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by using the correlation between black hole mass, M, and bulge/spheroid stellar velocity dispersion, sigma. We use new measurements of sigma for 6 AGNs and published velocity dispersions for 10 others, in conjunction with improved reverberation mapping results, to determine the scaling factor required to bring reverberation-based black hole masses into agreement with the quiescent galaxy M-sigma relationship. The scatter in the AGN black hole masses is found to be less than a factor of 3. The current observational uncertainties preclude use of the scaling factor to discriminate between broad-line region models.
Original languageEnglish
Article number645
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume615
Issue number2
ISSN0004-637X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jul 2004

    Research areas

  • astro-ph

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