Probing the Low-Mass End of the Black Hole Mass Function via a Study of Faint Local Spiral Galaxies

Fusco, Michael; Davis, Benjamin L.; Kennefick, Julia; Kennefick, Daniel; Seigar, Marc S.

doi:10.3390/universe8120649

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 145 publications

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“…One advantageous application we envision for the M • -f-v max relation is to use it to construct black hole mass functions (BHMFs) from surveys of spiral galaxies. Already, the M • -f relation has been utilized to model the local BHMF derived from spiral galaxies Fusco et al 2022). The simple addition of v max , which is widely available for many spiral galaxies, could better aid in modeling the shape of the BHMF with lower scatter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of a Planar Black Hole Mass Scaling Relation for Spiral Galaxies

Davis,

Jin 金

2023

ApJL

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Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are tiny in comparison to the galaxies they inhabit, yet they manage to influence and coevolve along with their hosts. Evidence of this mutual development is observed in the structure and dynamics of galaxies and their correlations with black hole mass (M •). For our study, we focus on relative parameters that are unique to only disk galaxies. As such, we quantify the structure of spiral galaxies via their logarithmic spiral-arm pitch angles (ϕ) and their dynamics through the maximum rotational velocities of their galactic disks (v max). In the past, we have studied black hole mass scaling relations between M • and ϕ or v max, separately. Now, we combine the three parameters into a trivariate M •–ϕ–v max relationship that yields best-in-class accuracy in prediction of black hole masses in spiral galaxies. Because most black hole mass scaling relations have been created from samples of the largest SMBHs within the most massive galaxies, they lack certainty when extrapolated to low-mass spiral galaxies. Thus, it is difficult to confidently use existing scaling relations when trying to identify galaxies that might harbor the elusive class of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). Therefore, we offer our novel relationship as an ideal predictor to search for IMBHs and probe the low-mass end of the black hole mass function by utilizing spiral galaxies. Already with rotational velocities widely available for a large population of galaxies and pitch angles readily measurable from uncalibrated images, we expect that the M •–ϕ–v max fundamental plane will be a useful tool for estimating black hole masses, even at high redshifts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of a Planar Black Hole Mass Scaling Relation for Spiral Galaxies

Davis,

Jin 金

2023

ApJL

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“…These are rare discoveries, and to date, only a handful of non-stellar black holes below 10 5 M have been suggested to exist (e.g. Kaaret et al 2001;Filippenko & Ho 2003;Farrell et al 2009; van den Bosch & de Zeeuw 2010; Reines et al 2013;Baldassare et al 2015;Pasham et al 2015;Mezcua et al 2015;Nguyen et al 2019;Baldassare et al 2020;Fusco et al 2022;Ward et al 2022). Therefore, finding a Ia-TDE would be of great relevance to the study of BHs, since it would also indicate the unambiguous discovery of an IMBH.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Search for Thermonuclear Transients from the Tidal Disruption of a White Dwarf by an Intermediate Mass Black Hole

Gómez¹,

Gezari²

2023

Preprint

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The close encounter of a white dwarf (WD) with a black hole (BH) could result in the tidal disruption of the WD. During this encounter, the WD can undergo a thermonuclear explosion due to its tidal compression, resulting in an optical transient similar to a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), hereafter a Ia-TDE. Nevertheless, this will only be physically observable if the BH is 10 5 M . Finding a Ia-TDE would therefore imply the discovery of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) 10 5 M . Here, we search the entire Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) alert stream for the elusive Ia-TDEs. We restrict our search to nuclear transients in dwarf galaxies, the likely sites for IMBHs, and find a total of six possible nuclear Ia-TDE candidates. We find SN 2020lrt to be the most likely Ia-TDE candidate, thanks to its strong resemblance to light curve and spectroscopic models of Ia-TDEs. We measure the stellar masses of the dwarf galaxies hosting these transients to be 10 9 M ; if confirmed to harbor BHs, these would prove the existence of IMBHs in some of the lowest-mass galaxies known. Additionally, we searched for off-nuclear Ia-TDEs, but were unable to find more robust candidates in the outskirts of galaxies than in their nuclei. This supports the hypothesis that the nuclear Ia-TDEs candidates are WDs tidally compressed by IMBHs in the cores of galaxies, as opposed to a class of transient that can happen anywhere in a galaxy. We have laid the groundwork to systematically search for Ia-TDE candidates in existing and future time-domain surveys. Rapid characterization of their nature will result in not only the confirmation of a Ia-TDE, but also the unambiguous discovery of bonafide IMBHs.

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Global instability by runaway collisions in nuclear stellar clusters: numerical tests of a route for massive black hole formation

Vergara

Escala

Schleicher

et al. 2023

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The centers of galaxies host nuclear stellar clusters, supermassive black holes, or both. The origin of this dichotomy is still a mystery. Nuclear stellar clusters are the densest stellar system in the Universe, so they are ideal places for runaway collisions to occur. Previous studies have proposed the possible existence of a critical mass scale in such clusters, for which the occurrence of collisions becomes very frequent and leads to the formation of a very massive object. While it is difficult to directly probe this scenario with simulations, we here aim for a proof of concept using toy models where the occurrence of such a transition is shown based on simplified compact systems, where the typical evolution timescales will be faster compared to the real Universe. Indeed our simulations confirm that such a transition takes place and that up to 50% of the cluster mass can go into the formation of a central massive object for clusters that are above the critical mass scale. Our results thus support the proposed new scenario on the basis of idealized simulations. A preliminary analysis of observed nuclear star clusters shows similar trends related to the critical mass as in our simulations. We further discuss the caveats for the application of the proposed scenario in real nuclear star clusters.

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Probing the Low-Mass End of the Black Hole Mass Function via a Study of Faint Local Spiral Galaxies

Cited by 5 publications

References 145 publications

Discovery of a Planar Black Hole Mass Scaling Relation for Spiral Galaxies

Discovery of a Planar Black Hole Mass Scaling Relation for Spiral Galaxies

The Search for Thermonuclear Transients from the Tidal Disruption of a White Dwarf by an Intermediate Mass Black Hole

Global instability by runaway collisions in nuclear stellar clusters: numerical tests of a route for massive black hole formation

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