The accuracy of supermassive black hole masses determined by the single-epoch spectrum (Dibai) method

The first set of supermassive black hole mass estimates, published from 1977 to 1984 by E.A. Dibai, are shown to be in excellent agreement with recent reverberation-mapping estimates. Comparison of the masses of 17 AGNs covering a mass range from about 10 6 to 10 9 M ⊙ shows that the Dibai mass esti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy letters 2009-05, Vol.35 (5), p.287-293
Main Authors: Bochkarev, N. G., Gaskell, C. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Black holes
Kinematics
Observations and Techniques
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quasars
Stars & galaxies
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Summary:The first set of supermassive black hole mass estimates, published from 1977 to 1984 by E.A. Dibai, are shown to be in excellent agreement with recent reverberation-mapping estimates. Comparison of the masses of 17 AGNs covering a mass range from about 10 6 to 10 9 M ⊙ shows that the Dibai mass estimates agree with reverberation-mapping mass estimates to significantly better than ±0.3 dex and were, on average, only 0.14 dex (∼40%) systematically lower than masses obtained from reverberation mapping. This surprising agreement with the results of over a quarter of a century ago has important implication for the structure and kinematics of AGNs and implies that type-1 AGNs are very similar. Our results give strong support to the use of the single-epoch-spectrum (Dibai) method for investigating the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.
ISSN:1063-7737
1562-6873
DOI:10.1134/S1063773709050016