A ~50,000 solar mass black hole in the nucleus of RGG 118

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a ~50,000 solar mass black hole in the dwarf galaxy RGG 118, providing new insights into low-mass black hole properties and their relation to host galaxy characteristics.

Contribution

It presents the first clear detection and mass estimate of a black hole below 10^6 solar masses in a galaxy nucleus, extending the known black hole scaling relations.

Findings

Black hole mass of ~50,000 solar masses estimated.

Detection of nuclear X-ray source indicating active accretion.

Black hole lies on the extrapolated M_BH–sigma relation at low masses.

Abstract

Scaling relations between black hole (BH) masses and their host galaxy properties have been studied extensively over the last two decades, and point towards co-evolution of central massive BHs and their hosts. However, these relations remain poorly constrained for BH masses below $\sim10^{6}$ M_sun. Here we present optical and X-ray observations of the dwarf galaxy RGG 118 taken with the Magellan Echellette Spectrograph on the 6.5m Clay Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. Based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy, RGG 118 was identified as possessing narrow emission line ratios indicative of photoionization partly due to an active galactic nucleus. Our higher resolution spectroscopy clearly reveals broad H$\alpha$ emission in the spectrum of RGG 118. Using virial BH mass estimate techniques, we calculate a BH mass of $\sim50,000$ \msun. We detect a nuclear X-ray point source in RGG 118, suggesting a total accretion powered luminosity of $L=4\times10^{40}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}}$, and an Eddington fraction of $\sim1$ per cent. The BH in RGG 118 is the smallest ever reported in a galaxy nucleus and we find that it lies on the extrapolation of the $M_{\rm BH}-\sigma_{\ast}$ relation to the lowest masses yet.