Evidence for a central dark mass in NGC 4594 (the Sombrero galaxy)

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Black Holes (Astronomy), Dark Matter, Galactic Mass, Galactic Nuclei, Galactic Structure, Stellar Motions, Andromeda Galaxy, Brightness Distribution, Mass To Light Ratios, Radial Velocity, Stellar Rotation

Scientific paper

Stellar rotation velocities and velocity dispersions along the major and minor axes of NGC 4594 have been measured in effective seeing <0arcsec.5 with the CFH Telescope. There is a clear kinematic signature of a nuclear disk of stars superposed on the bulge. It rotates rapidly: the apparent rotation curve reaches an inner maximum of 231±7 km s-1 at r = 5arcsec.0. Three-dimensional velocity and velocity dispersion fields are found that fit the observations after projection and seeing convolution. In all acceptable models, large velocities and velocity gradients imply that the total mass-to-light ratio rises by more than a factor of 10 at r < 1arcsec to values M/LV > 50. Exploration of model parameter space shows that the central rise in M/LV is a robust result independent of the assumed forms of V(r) and σ(r). Therefore the observations imply that NGC 4594 contains a central dark object, possibly a black hole, of mass ≡109M_sun;.

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