2000/09/30 by R. J. McLure, J. S. Dunlop · 293 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Bulge #Fundamental plane (elliptical galaxies) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Intermediate-mass black hole #Lenticular galaxy #Luminosity #Physics #Quasar #Radio galaxy #Reverberation mapping #Spin-flip #Stellar black hole #Supermassive black hole #Virial mass #Virial theorem #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04709.x
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 327(1), 199-207 (Oxford University Press) · 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2001/06/07 · openalex publication_date 2001/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
The central black hole masses of a sample of 30 luminous quasars are estimated using Hβ full width half-maximum (FWHM) measurements from a combination of new and previously published nuclear spectra. The quasar black hole mass estimates are combined with reverberation-mapping measurements for a sample of Seyfert galaxies in order to study active galatic nucleus (AGN) black hole masses over a wide range in nuclear luminosity. The link between bulge luminosity and black hole mass is investigated using two-dimensional disc/bulge decompositions of the host galaxy images, the vast majority of which are high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. It is found that black hole mass and bulge luminosity are well correlated and follow a relation consistent with that expected if black hole and bulge mass are directly proportional. Contrary to the recent results of Wandel, no evidence that Seyfert galaxies follow a different relation to quasars is found. However, the black hole mass distributions of the radio-loud and radio-quiet quasar subsamples are found to be significantly different, with the median black hole mass of the radio-loud quasars a factor of three larger than their radio-quiet counterparts. Finally, utilizing the elliptical galaxy fundamental plane to provide stellar velocity dispersion estimates, a comparison is performed between the virial Hβ black hole mass estimates and those of the correlations of Gebhardt et al. and Merritt & Ferrarese. With the disc geometry of the broad-line region adopted in this paper, the virial Hβ black hole masses indicate that the correct normalization of the black hole versus bulge mass relation is , while the standard assumption of purely random broad-line velocities leads to . The normalization of provided by the disc model is in remarkably good agreement with that inferred for our quasar sample using the (completely independent) correlations.