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A ∼50,000 M ⊙ SOLAR MASS BLACK HOLE IN THE NUCLEUS OF RGG 118
Open accessAbstract
Scaling relations between black hole (BH) masses and their host galaxy properties have been studied extensively over the last two decades, and point toward co-evolution of central massive BHs and their hosts. However, these relations remain poorly constrained for BH masses below . Here we present optical and X-ray observations of the dwarf galaxy RGG 118 taken with the Magellan Echellette Spectrograph on the 6.5 m Clay Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory . Based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy, RGG 118 was identified as possessing narrow emission line ratios indicative of photoionization partly due to an active galactic nucleus. Our higher resolution spectroscopy clearly reveals broad H α emission in the spectrum of RGG 118. Using virial BH mass estimate techniques, we calculate a BH mass of ∼50,000 . We detect a nuclear X-ray point source in RGG 118, suggesting a total accretion powered luminosity of , and an Eddington fraction of ∼1%. The BH in RGG 118 is the smallest ever reported in a galaxy nucleus and we find that it lies on the extrapolation of the relation to the lowest masses yet.
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Cited by
RELATIONS BETWEEN CENTRAL BLACK HOLE MASS AND TOTAL GALAXY STELLAR MASS IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
Reines, A. E., & Volonteri, M. (2015) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/813/2/82 · Cited by 849
Self-citationBlack holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
Askar, A., Belczynski, C., Bertone, G., Bon, E., Blas, D., Brito, R., Bulik, T., Burrage, C., Byrnes, C. T., Caprini, C., et al. (2019) · Classical and Quantum Gravity · doi:10.1088/1361-6382/ab0587 · Cited by 744
Active galactic nuclei: what’s in a name?
Padovani, P., Alexander, D. M., Assef, R. J., De Marco, B., Giommi, P., Hickox, R. C., Richards, G. T., Smolčić, V., Hatziminaoglou, E., Mainieri, V., et al. (2017) · The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review · doi:10.1007/s00159-017-0102-9 · Cited by 666
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Metadata
- Authors
- Baldassare, V. F., Reines, A. E., Gallo, E., & Greene, J. E.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2015-08-11
- Volume
- 809
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- L14
- ISSN
- 2041-8205 (ISSN-L)
- 2041-8213
- OpenAlex
- W1517982554
- Cited by
- 208
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 13.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Baldassare, V. F., Reines, A. E., Gallo, E., & Greene, J. E. (2015). A ∼50,000 M ⊙ SOLAR MASS BLACK HOLE IN THE NUCLEUS OF RGG 118. The Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/809/1/l14
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