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Aims.The goal of this project is to construct an estimator for the masses of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) based on the broad Hαemission line. Methods.We made use of published reverberation mapping data. We remeasured all Hαtime lags from the original data as we find that reverberation measurements are often improved by detrending the light curves. Results.We produced mass estimators that require only the Hαluminosity and the width of the Hαemission line as characterized by either the full width at half maximum or the line dispersion. Conclusions.It is possible, on the basis of a single spectrum covering the Hαemission line, to estimate the mass of the central supermassive black hole in AGNs with all three parameters believed to affect mass measurement – luminosity, line width, and Eddington ratio – taken into account. The typical formal accuracy in such estimates is of order 0.2–0.3 dex relative to the reverberation-based masses. 

We present MeerKAT Fornax Survey H Iobservations of NGC 1427A, a blue irregular galaxy with a stellar mass of ∼2 × 10⁹M_⊙located near the centre of the Fornax galaxy cluster. Thanks to the excellent resolution (1–6 kpc spatially, 1.4 km s⁻¹in velocity) and H Icolumn density sensitivity (∼4 × 10¹⁹to ∼10¹⁸cm⁻²depending on resolution), our data deliver new insights on the long-debated interaction of this galaxy with the cluster environment. We confirm the presence of a broad, one-sided, starless H Itail stretching from the outer regions of the stellar body and pointing away from the cluster centre. We find the tail to have 50% more H I(4 × 10⁸M_⊙) and to be 3 times longer (70 kpc) than in previous observations. In fact, we detect scattered H Iclouds out to 300 kpc from the galaxy in the direction of the tail – possibly the most ancient remnant of the passage of NGC 1427A through the intracluster medium of Fornax. Both the velocity gradient along the H Itail and the peculiar kinematics of H Iin the outer region of the stellar body are consistent with the effect of ram pressure given the line-of-sight motion of the galaxy within the cluster. However, several properties cannot be explained solely by ram pressure and suggest an ongoing tidal interaction. This includes: the close match between dense H Iand stars within the disturbed stellar body; the abundant kinematically anomalous H I; and the inversion of the H Ivelocity gradient near the base of the H Itail. We rule out an interaction with the cluster tidal field, and conclude that NGC 1427A is the result of a high-speed galaxy encounter or of a merger started at least 300 Myr ago, where ram pressure shapes the distribution and kinematics of the H Iin the perturbed outer stellar body and in the tidal tails. 

The MeerKAT Fornax Survey maps the distribution and kinematics of atomic neutral hydrogen gas (H  I ) in the nearby Fornax galaxy cluster using the MeerKAT telescope. The 12 deg 2 survey footprint covers the central region of the cluster out to ∼ R vir and stretches south-west out to ∼2 R vir to include the NGC 1316 galaxy group. The H  I column density sensitivity (3 σ over 25 km s −1 ) ranges from 5 × 10 19 cm −2 at a resolution of ∼10″ (∼1 kpc at the 20 Mpc distance of Fornax) down to ∼10 18 cm −2 at ∼1′ (∼6 kpc), and slightly below this level at the lowest resolution of ∼100″ (∼10 kpc). The H  I mass sensitivity (3 σ over 50 km s −1 ) is 6 × 10 5 M ⊙ . The H  I velocity resolution is 1.4 km s −1 . In this paper, we describe the survey design and H  I data processing, and we present a sample of six galaxies with long, one-sided, starless H  I tails (only one of which was previously known) radially oriented within the cluster and with measurable internal velocity gradients. We argue that the joint properties of the H  I tails represent the first unambiguous evidence of ram pressure shaping the distribution of H  I in the Fornax cluster. The disturbed optical morphology of all host galaxies supports the idea that the tails consist of H  I that was initially pulled out of the galaxies’ stellar body by tidal forces. Ram pressure was then able to further displace the weakly bound H  I and give the tails their current direction, length, and velocity gradient.