The MASSIVE survey - XIX. Molecular gas measurements of the supermassive black hole masses in the elliptical galaxies NGC 1684 and NGC 0997
2024
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stae314
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses can be measured by observing their dynamical effects on tracers, such as molecular gas. We present high angular resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the (CO)-C-12(2-1) line emission of the early-type galaxies (ETGs) NGC 1684 and NGC 0997, obtained as part of the MASSIVE survey, a volume-limited integral-field spectroscopic study of the most massive local ETGs. NGC 1684 has a regularly rotating central molecular gas disc, with a spatial extent of approximate to 6 arcsec (approximate to 1.8 kpc) in radius and a central hole slightly larger than the expected SMBH sphere of influence. We forward model the data cube in a Bayesian framework with the Kinematic Molecular Simulation (KinMS) code and infer a SMBH mass of $1.40<^>{+0.44}_{-0.39}\times 10<^>9$ M-circle dot (3 sigma confidence interval) and an F110W-filter stellar mass-to-light ratio of (2.50 +/- 0.05) M-circle dot/L-circle dot,L- F110W. NGC 0997 has a regularly rotating central molecular gas disc, with a spatial extent of approximate to 5 arcsec (approximate to 2.2 kpc) in radius and a partially filled central hole much larger than the expected SMBH sphere of influence, thus preventing a robust SMBH mass determination. With the same modelling method, we nevertheless constrain the SMBH mass to be in the range 4.0 x 10(7)-1.8 x 10(9) M-circle dot and the F160W-filter stellar mass-to-light ratio to be (1.52 +/- 0.11) M-circle dot/L-circle dot,L- F160W. Both SMBH masses are consistent with the SMBH mass-stellar velocity dispersion (M-BH-sigma(e)) relation, suggesting that the overmassive SMBHs present in other very massive ETGs are fairly uncommon.