A general relativistic estimation of the black hole mass-to-distance ratio at the core of TXS 2226-184

TL;DR

This paper employs a general relativistic approach to estimate the black hole's mass-to-distance ratio in TXS 2226-184 using water maser frequency shifts, providing a new method for black hole characterization.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic method to estimate black hole parameters from maser observations, comparing results with traditional mass-luminosity estimates.

Findings

Estimated mass-to-distance ratio: 3.54 x 10^4 M_sun/Mpc

Black hole mass from relativistic fit: ~3.67 million M_sun

Comparison shows relativistic estimate is about 60% of mass-luminosity estimate

Abstract

In this work we make use of a general relativistic method to estimate the mass-to-distance ratio M/D = 3.54^{+0.2}_{-0.2} X 10^4 M_{sun}/Mpc of the black hole hosted at the core of the active galactic nucleus of TXS 2226-184, along with its Right Ascension offset and the recession redshift (velocity) of the galaxy. Our statistical fit is based on the frequency shift of photons emitted by water masers and their orbital positions when circularly revolving around the black hole center within the accretion disk of the active galactic nucleus. By taking into account a previously reported distance to the galaxy, we compare the result of the black hole mass fit to an estimate based on a mass-luminosity correlation. We find that the black hole mass at the core of TXS 2226-184 obtained with the aid of the statistical fit using the general relativistic method, M = 3.67 ^{+0.2}_{-0.2} X 10^6 M_{sun}, is approximately 0.6 times the black hole mass, M_{BH} = 6.24^{+3.6}_{-2.3} X 10^6 M_{sun}, computed with the mass-luminosity correlation.