Dynamical Constraints on The Masses of the Nuclear Star Cluster and Black Hole in the Late-Type Spiral Galaxy NGC 3621

Details Dynamical Constraints on The Masses of the Nuclear Star Cluster and Black Hole in the Late-Type Spiral Galaxy NGC 3621 Dynamical Constraints on The Masses of the Nuclear Star Cluster and Black Hole in the Late-Type Spiral Galaxy NGC 3621

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21441909b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #419.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.689

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

NGC 3621 is a late-type (Sd) spiral galaxy with an active nucleus, previously detected through mid-infrared [Ne V] line emission. Archival Hubble Space Telescope images reveal that the galaxy contains a bright and compact nuclear star cluster. We present a new high-resolution optical spectrum of this nuclear cluster, obtained with the ESI Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory. The nucleus has a Seyfert 2 emission-line spectrum at optical wavelengths, supporting the hypothesis that a black hole is present. The line-of-sight stellar velocity dispersion of the cluster is 43+/-3 km/s, one of the largest dispersions measured for any nuclear cluster in a late-type spiral galaxy. Combining this measurement with structural parameters measured from archival HST images, we carry out dynamical modeling based on the Jeans equation for a spherical star cluster containing a central point mass. The maximum black hole mass consistent with the measured stellar velocity dispersion is 3*10^6 solar masses. From structural decomposition of 2MASS images, we find no clear evidence for a bulge in NGC 3621; the galaxy contains at most a very faint and inconspicuous pseudobulge component. NGC 3621 provides one of the best demonstrations that very late-type spirals can host both active nuclei and nuclear star clusters, and that low-mass black holes can occur in disk galaxies even in the absence of a substantial bulge.

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