The MASSIVE Survey. XVII. A Triaxial Orbit-based Determination of the Black Hole Mass and Intrinsic Shape of Elliptical Galaxy NGC 2693

We present a stellar dynamical mass measurement of a newly detected supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the fast-rotating, massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2693 as part of the MASSIVE survey. We combine high signal-to-noise ratio integral field spectroscopy (IFS) from the Gemini Multi-Objec...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jacob D. Pilawa, Emily R. Liepold, Silvana C. Delgado Andrade, Jonelle L. Walsh, Chung-Pei Ma, Matthew E. Quenneville, Jenny E. Greene, John P. Blakeslee
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2022-01-01
Series:The Astrophysical Journal
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac58fd
Description
Summary:We present a stellar dynamical mass measurement of a newly detected supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the fast-rotating, massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2693 as part of the MASSIVE survey. We combine high signal-to-noise ratio integral field spectroscopy (IFS) from the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph with wide-field data from the Mitchell Spectrograph at McDonald Observatory to extract and model stellar kinematics of NGC 2693 from the central ∼150 pc out to ∼2.5 effective radii. Observations from Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 are used to determine the stellar light distribution. We perform fully triaxial Schwarzschild orbit modeling using the latest TriOS code and a Bayesian search in 6D galaxy model parameter space to determine NGC 2693's SMBH mass ( M _BH ), stellar mass-to-light ratio, dark matter content, and intrinsic shape. We find ${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}=\left(1.7\pm 0.4\right)\times {10}^{9}\ {M}_{\odot }$ and a triaxial intrinsic shape with axis ratios p = b / a = 0.902 ± 0.009 and $q=c/a={0.721}_{-0.010}^{+0.011}$ , triaxiality parameter T = 0.39 ± 0.04. In comparison, the best-fit orbit model in the axisymmetric limit and (cylindrical) Jeans anisotropic model of NGC 2693 prefer ${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}=\left(2.4\pm 0.6\right)\times {10}^{9}\ {M}_{\odot }$ and ${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}=\left(2.9\pm 0.3\right)\times {10}^{9}\ {M}_{\odot }$ , respectively. Neither model can account for the non-axisymmetric stellar velocity features present in the IFS data.
ISSN:1538-4357