The MASSIVE survey – XIX. Molecular gas measurements of the supermassive black hole masses in the elliptical galaxies NGC 1684 and NGC 0997

Abstract

ABSTRACT Supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses can be measured by observing their dynamical effects on tracers, such as molecular gas. We present high angular resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the 12CO(2–1) line emission of the early-type galaxies (ETGs) NGC 1684 and NGC 0997, obtained as part of the MASSIVE survey, a volume-limited integral-field spectroscopic study of the most massive local ETGs. NGC 1684 has a regularly rotating central molecular gas disc, with a spatial extent of ≈6 arcsec (≈1.8 kpc) in radius and a central hole slightly larger than the expected SMBH sphere of influence. We forward model the data cube in a Bayesian framework with the Kinematic Molecular Simulation (KinMS) code and infer a SMBH mass of $1.40^{+0.44}_{-0.39}\times 10^9$ M⊙ (3σ confidence interval) and an F110W-filter stellar mass-to-light ratio of (2.50 ± 0.05) M⊙/L⊙, F110W. NGC 0997 has a regularly rotating central molecular gas disc, with a spatial extent of ≈5 arcsec (≈2.2 kpc) in radius and a partially filled central hole much larger than the expected SMBH sphere of influence, thus preventing a robust SMBH mass determination. With the same modelling method, we nevertheless constrain the SMBH mass to be in the range 4.0 × 107–1.8 × 109 M⊙ and the F160W-filter stellar mass-to-light ratio to be (1.52 ± 0.11) M⊙/L⊙, F160W. Both SMBH masses are consistent with the SMBH mass–stellar velocity dispersion (MBH–σe) relation, suggesting that the overmassive SMBHs present in other very massive ETGs are fairly uncommon.