The Black-Hole Mass in M87 from Gemini/NIFS Adaptive Optics Observations

TL;DR

This study measures the supermassive black hole in M87 using adaptive optics and stellar kinematics, confirming a mass around 6.6 billion solar masses and highlighting the importance of high-resolution data for accurate estimates.

Contribution

First direct measurement of M87's black hole mass using Gemini/NIFS adaptive optics with orbit-based models, emphasizing the role of high-resolution data in breaking degeneracies.

Findings

Black hole mass in M87 is approximately 6.6 billion solar masses.

Adaptive optics data reduces uncertainty and breaks degeneracy between black hole mass and stellar mass-to-light ratio.

Black hole mass exceeds predictions from standard scaling relations, indicating possible revisions needed.

Abstract

We present the stellar kinematics in the central 2" of the luminous elliptical galaxy M87 (NGC 4486), using laser adaptive optics to feed the Gemini telescope integral-field spectrograph, NIFS. The velocity dispersion rises to 480 km/s at 0.2". We combine these data with extensive stellar kinematics out to large radii to derive a black-hole mass equal to (6.6+-0.4)x10^9 Msun, using orbit-based axisymmetric models and including only the NIFS data in the central region. Including previously-reported ground-based data in the central region drops the uncertainty to 0.25x10^9 Msun with no change in the best-fit mass; however, we rely on the values derived from the NIFS-only data in the central region in order to limit systematic differences. The best-fit model shows a significant increase in the tangential velocity anisotropy of stars orbiting in the central region with decreasing radius; similar to that seen in the centers of other core galaxies. The black-hole mass is insensitive to the inclusion of a dark halo in the models --- the high angular-resolution provided by the adaptive optics breaks the degeneracy between black-hole mass and stellar mass-to-light ratio. The present black-hole mass is in excellent agreement with the Gebhardt & Thomas value, implying that the dark halo must be included when the kinematic influence of the black hole is poorly resolved. This degeneracy implies that the black-hole masses of luminous core galaxies, where this effect is important, may need to be re-evaluated. The present value exceeds the prediction of the black hole-dispersion and black hole-luminosity relations, both of which predict about 1x10^9 Msun for M87, by close to twice the intrinsic scatter in the relations. The high-end of the black hole correlations may be poorly determined at present.