The Stellar Dynamics in the Centers of the LINER Galaxies M81 and NGC 3998

Details The Stellar Dynamics in the Centers of the LINER Galaxies M81 and NGC 3998 The Stellar Dynamics in the Centers of the LINER Galaxies M81 and NGC 3998

Dec 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aas...197.9203b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 197th AAS Meeting, #92.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1566

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

11

Scientific paper

M81 and NGC 3998 are nearby galaxies with mildly active nuclei, which exhibit LINER-type optical spectra including broad permitted lines. Their ionization structure suggests that the nuclear gas is photoionized by a nonstellar nuclear source, presumably a supermassive black hole. For both galaxies, we have obtained ground-based and HST/STIS long-slit spectroscopy, from which we are analyzing the nuclear stellar dynamics to search for dynamical evidence of supermassive black holes. Both galaxies show very high central velocity dispersions (σ of 550 km s-1 for M81 and 670 km s-1 for NGC 3998). After measuring the stellar kinematics from the data, we have constructed axisymmetric dynamical models assuming two integrals of motion (orbital energy and angular momentum). The models for each galaxy point to the presence of a central dark compact object (presumably a supermassive black hole) with > 99.5% confidence. The best-fit masses are 6 x 107 \ Msun for M81 and 6 x 108 \ Msun for NGC 3998, with internal error of 20% and 10%, respectively. We are refining these measurements by constructing axisymmetric three integral models utilizing an orbit-based technique. Support for this work was provided by NASA through grant GO-7350 from STScI. Ground-based observations were obtained from the Michigan Dartmouth MIT Observatory.

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