Calibrating the Black Hole Mass Scale for Quasars

Details Calibrating the Black Hole Mass Scale for Quasars Calibrating the Black Hole Mass Scale for Quasars

Jul 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003hst..prop.9763b&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9763

Mathematics

Logic

Hst Proposal Id #9763 Agn/Quasars

Scientific paper

We propose to obtain ACS/WFC imaging of all 17 low-redshift quasars that have black hole masses measured from reverberation mapping. This is a key sample since all secondary methods to estimate black hole mass in quasars depend on this local reverberation-mapped sample for their calibration. The best external check on reverberation mapping is whether it gives results that are consistent with the black hole mass- host galaxy correlations of nearby galaxies. For local Seyfert galaxies the reverberation masses appear consistent with the M-sigma correlation, but it is not known whether this also holds true for quasars because the stellar velocity dispersions of quasar hosts are virtually impossible to measure. We will use the ACS data to measure accurate bulge parameters {luminosity and effective radius} for the host galaxies of the reverberation-mapped quasars. From the fundamental plane or the Faber-Jackson relation, we can estimate the host galaxy velocity dispersion and test whether the reverberation masses follow the M-sigma relation even for objects with quasar luminosities. This is a crucial test if we are to trust the reverberation masses as the lowest rung on a "distance ladder" of black hole mass estimators for quasars, so that quasars can be used to trace the cosmological growth history of black holes. {Note added in Phase II: the TAC awarded us 8 orbits to observe 7 quasars and a PSF star.}

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