WISDOM project – VI. Exploring the relation between supermassive black hole mass and galaxy rotation with molecular gas

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 500:2 (2020) 1933-1952

Authors:

Mark D Smith, Martin Bureau, Timothy A Davis, Michele Cappellari, Lijie Liu, Kyoko Onishi, Satoru Iguchi, Eve V North, Marc Sarzi

Abstract:

ABSTRACT Empirical correlations between the masses of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and properties of their host galaxies are well established. Among these is the correlation with the flat rotation velocity of each galaxy measured either at a large radius in its rotation curve or via a spatially integrated emission-line width. We propose here the use of the deprojected integrated CO emission-line width as an alternative tracer of this rotation velocity, which has already been shown useful for the Tully–Fisher (luminosity–rotation velocity) relation. We investigate the correlation between CO line widths and SMBH masses for two samples of galaxies with dynamical SMBH mass measurements, with spatially resolved and unresolved CO observations, respectively. The tightest correlation is found using the resolved sample of 25 galaxies as $\log (M_\mathrm{BH}/\mathrm{M_\odot })=(7.5\pm 0.1)+(8.5\pm 0.9)[\log (W_\mathrm{50}/\sin i \, \mathrm{km\, s}^{-1})-2.7]$, where MBH is the central SMBH mass, W50 is the full width at half-maximum of a double-horned emission-line profile, and i is the inclination of the CO disc. This relation has a total scatter of $0.6\,$ dex, comparable to those of other SMBH mass correlations, and dominated by the intrinsic scatter of $0.5\,$ dex. A tight correlation is also found between the deprojected CO line widths and the stellar velocity dispersions averaged within one effective radius. We apply our correlation to the COLD GASS sample to estimate the local SMBH mass function.

Luminous Red Nova AT 2019zhd, a new merger in M 31

(2020)

Authors:

A Pastorello, M Fraser, G Valerin, A Reguitti, K Itagaki, P Ochner, SC Williams, D Jones, J Munday, SJ Smartt, KW Smith, S Srivastav, N Elias-Rosa, E Kankare, E Karamehmetoglu, P Lundqvist, PA Mazzali, U Munari, MD Stritzinger, L Tomasella, JP Anderson, KC Chambers, A Rest

The luminous red nova variety: AT 2020hat and AT 2020kog

(2020)

Authors:

A Pastorello, G Valerin, M Fraser, N Elias-Rosa, S Valenti, A Reguitti, PA Mazzali, RC Amaro, JE Andrews, Y Dong, J Jencson, M Lundquist, DE Reichart, DJ Sand, S Wyatt, SJ Smartt, KW Smith, S Srivastav, Y-Z Cai, E Cappellaro, S Holmbo, A Fiore, D Jones, E Kankare, E Karamehmetoglu, P Lundqvist, A Morales-Garoffolo, TM Reynolds, MD Stritzinger, SC Williams, KC Chambers, TJL de Boer, ME Huber, A Rest, R Wainscoat

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: a statistical approach to an optimal classification of stellar kinematics in galaxy surveys

(2020)

Authors:

Jesse van de Sande, Sam P Vaughan, Luca Cortese, Nicholas Scott, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Scott M Croom, Claudia DP Lagos, Sarah Brough, Julia J Bryant, Julien Devriendt, Yohan Dubois, Francesco D'Eugenio, Caroline Foster, Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, Katherine E Harborne, Jon S Lawrence, Sree Oh, Matt S Owers, Adriano Poci, Rhea-Silvia Remus, Samuel N Richards, Felix Schulze, Sarah M Sweet, Mathew R Varidel, Charlotte Welker

One- and two-point source statistics from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey first data release

Astronomy and Astrophysics EDP Sciences 643 (2020) A100

Authors:

Tm Siewert, C Hale, N Bhardwaj, M Biermann, Dj Bacon, M Jarvis, Hja Rottgering, Dj Schwarz, T Shimwell, Pn Best, Kj Duncan, Mj Hardcastle, J Sabater, C Tasse, Gj White, Wl Williams

Abstract:

Context: The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) will eventually map the complete Northern sky and provide an excellent opportunity to study the distribution and evolution of the large-scale structure of the Universe.

Aims: We test the quality of LoTSS observations through a statistical comparison of the LoTSS first data release (DR1) catalogues to expectations from the established cosmological model of a statistically isotropic and homogeneous Universe.

Methods: We study the point-source completeness and define several quality cuts, in order to determine the count-in-cell statistics and differential source count statistics, and measure the angular two-point correlation function. We use the photometric redshift estimates, which are available for about half of the LoTSS-DR1 radio sources, to compare the clustering throughout the history of the Universe.

Results: For the masked LoTSS-DR1 value-added source catalogue, we find a point-source completeness of 99% above flux densities of 0.8 mJy. The counts-in-cell statistic reveals that the distribution of radio sources cannot be described by a spatial Poisson process. Instead, a good fit is provided by a compound Poisson distribution. The differential source counts are in good agreement with previous findings in deep fields at low radio frequencies and with simulated catalogues from the SKA Design Study and the Tiered Radio Extragalactic Continuum Simulation. Restricting the value added source catalogue to low-noise regions and applying a flux density threshold of 2 mJy provides our most reliable estimate of the angular two-point correlation. Based on the distribution of photometric redshifts and the Planck 2018 best-fit cosmological model, the theoretically predicted angular two-point correlation between 0.1 deg and 6 deg agrees reasonably well with the measured clustering for the sub-sample of radio sources with redshift information.

Conclusions: The deviation from a Poissonian distribution might be a consequence of the multi-component nature of a large number of resolved radio sources and/or of uncertainties on the flux density calibration. The angular two-point correlation function is < 10-2 at angular scales > 1 deg and up to the largest scales probed. At a 2 mJy flux density threshold and at a pivot angle of 1 deg, we find a clustering amplitude of A = (5.1? ±? 0.6) × 10-3 with a slope parameter of γ = 0.74? ±? 0.16. For smaller flux density thresholds, systematic issues are identified, which are most likely related to the flux density calibration of the individual pointings. We conclude that we find agreement with the expectation of large-scale statistical isotropy of the radio sky at the per cent level. The angular two-point correlation agrees well with the expectation of the cosmological standard model.