A stellar dynamical mass measurement of an inactive black hole at redshift 2

2025/03/21 by Andrew B. Newman, Newman, Andrew B., Meng Gu +71 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.17478

arxiv published 2025/03/21 · arxiv updated 2026/06/05

Abstract

Supermassive black holes and their host galaxies grow together over time, producing correlations between the black hole mass and various galaxy properties. Determining the evolution of these correlations requires precise measurements of the masses of distant black holes. We observe the gravitationally lensed quiescent galaxy MRG-M0138, at redshift 1.95, using JWST integral field spectroscopy to spatially resolve the kinematics of stars within the black hole's sphere of influence. By using a foreground lens model and fitting stellar dynamical models, we determine the mass of its inactive black hole, M_\bullet=6.0^+2.1_-1.7×10⁹ solar masses. Comparing this measurement to local galaxies, we find that M_\bullet is higher than expected given the galaxy's bulge mass, but consistent with the correlation with stellar velocity dispersion.

Cited by

• A Constraint on Dark Matter Self-Interaction from Combined Strong Lensing and Stellar Kinematics in MACS J0138-2155

Discussions

• A stellar dynamical mass measurement of an inactive black hole at redshift 2: arxiv.org/abs/2503.17478 -> Researchers weigh the most distant dormant black hole / JWST measures mass of a dormant black [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]

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