John Kormendy et al 1997 ApJ 482 L139 doi:10.1086/310720
John Kormendy1,2,3, Ralf Bender2, John Magorrian4, Scott Tremaine4,5, Karl Gebhardt6, Douglas Richstone6, Alan Dressler7, S. M. Faber8, Carl Grillmair9 and Tod R. Lauer10
Show affiliationsThe stellar kinematics of the low-luminosity elliptical galaxy NGC 4486B have been measured in seeing σ* = 0
22 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Subarcsecond Imaging Spectrograph. Lauer and collaborators have shown that NGC 4486B is similar to M31 in having a double nucleus. Here we show that it also resembles M31 in its kinematics. Like M31, NGC 4486B rotates fairly rapidly near the center (V = 76 ± 7 km s-1 at 0
6) but more slowly farther out (V
20 ± 6 km s-1 at r
4''). Also, the velocity dispersion gradient is very steep: σ increases from 116 ± 6 km s-1 at r = 2''-6'' to σ = 281 ± 11 km s-1 at the center. This is much higher than expected for an elliptical galaxy of absolute magnitude MB
-16.8: even more than M31, NGC 4486B is far above the scatter in the Faber-Jackson correlation between σ and bulge luminosity. Therefore, the King core mass-to-light ratio, M/LV
20, is unusually high compared with normal values for old stellar populations (M/LV = 4 ± 1 at MB
-17).
We construct simple dynamical models with isotropic velocity dispersions and show that they reproduce black hole (BH) masses derived by more detailed methods. We also fit axisymmetric, three-integral models. Isotropic models imply that NGC 4486B contains a central dark object, probably a BH, of mass M• = 6+ 3−2 × 108 M
. However, anisotropic models fit the data without a BH if the ratio of radial to azimuthal dispersions is ~2 at r
1''. Therefore, this is a less strong BH detection than the ones in M31, M32, and NGC 3115. A dark mass of 6 × 108 M
is ~9% of the mass Mbulge in stars; even if M• is somewhat smaller than the isotropic value, M•/Mbulge is likely to be unusually large.
Double nuclei are a puzzle because the dynamical friction timescales for self-gravitating star clusters in close orbit around each other are short. Since both M31 and NGC 4486B contain central dark objects, our results support models in which the survival of a double nucleus is connected with the presence of a BH. For example, they support the Keplerian eccentric disk model due to Tremaine.
black hole physics; galaxies: individual (NGC 4486B); galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; galaxies: nuclei
Issue 2 (1997 June 20)
Received 1996 December 17, accepted for publication 1997 March 27
John Kormendy et al 1997 ApJ 482 L139
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