SINFONI on the Nucleus of Centaurus A

Details SINFONI on the Nucleus of Centaurus A SINFONI on the Nucleus of Centaurus A

Mar 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010msngr.139...36n&link_type=abstract

The Messenger, vol. 139, p. 36-41

Physics

Optics

5

Scientific paper

The prominent radio galaxy Centaurus A is the closest active galaxy and a prime opportunity to study the central supermassive black hole and its influence on the environment in great detail. We used the near-infrared integral field spectrograph SINFONI to measure Centaurus A's black hole mass from both stellar and gas kinematics. This study shows how the advance in observing techniques and instrumentation drive the field of black hole mass measurements, and concludes that adaptive optics assisted integral field spectroscopy is the key to identifying the effects of the active galactic nucleus on the surrounding ionised gas. The best-fit black hole mass is MBH = 4.5 (+1.7, -1.0) × 107 MSun (from H2 kinematics) and MBH = 5.5 ± 3.0 × 107 MSun (from stellar kinematics; both with 3σ errors). This is one of the cleanest gas versus star comparisons of a black hole mass determination, and brings Centaurus A into agreement with the relation of black hole mass versus galaxy stellar velocity dispersion.

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