{
  "id": "1507.02292",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2015-07-08T20:01:29.000Z",
  "updated": "2015-07-08T20:01:29.000Z",
  "title": "The over-massive black hole in NGC 1277: New constraints from molecular gas kinematics",
  "authors": [
    "J. Scharwächter",
    "F. Combes",
    "P. Salomé",
    "M. Sun",
    "M. Krips"
  ],
  "comment": "13 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.GA"
  ],
  "abstract": "We report the detection of CO(1-0) emission from NGC 1277, a lenticular galaxy in the Perseus Cluster, which has been proposed to host a $(1.3-1.7) \\times 10^{10}\\ M_\\odot$ black hole (BH) based on stellar kinematic measurements. The CO(1-0) emission, observed with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) using both, a more extended (~1-arcsec resolution) and a more compact (~2.5-arcsec resolution) configuration, is likely to originate from the dust lane encompassing the galaxy nucleus at a distance of 0.9 arcsec (~320 pc). The spatially-unresolved double-horned CO(1-0) profile found at 2.5-arcsec resolution is likely to trace gas orbiting in the dust lane with rotational velocities of ~520 km s$^{-1}$, indicative of an enclosed mass of ~$2 \\times 10^{10}\\ M_\\odot$. Based on models with realistic mass distributions, the CO(1-0) kinematics is found to be consistent with a ~$1.7 \\times 10^{10}\\ M_\\odot$ BH, while a less massive BH is still possible assuming a large stellar mass-to-light ratio. The strongest CO(1-0) component, centred at ~+500 km s$^{-1}$, is detected at 1-arcsec resolution. It shows an offset from the underlying continuum peak and may originate from a gas clump near the eastern orbital node of the dust lane. The extended 2.6-mm continuum emission is likely associated with a weak AGN, possibly characterized by an inverted radio-to-millimetre spectral energy distribution. Literature radio and X-ray data indicate that an ultra-massive BH in NGC 1277 would not only be over-massive with respect to the BH scaling relations, but also with respect to the fundamental plane of BH activity.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2015-07-08T20:01:29.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "molecular gas kinematics",
      "over-massive black hole",
      "dust lane",
      "constraints",
      "resolution"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 13,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}