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Holmberg 15A (H15A), the brightest cluster galaxy of A85, has an exceptionally low central surface brightness even among local massive elliptical galaxies with distinct stellar cores, making it exceedingly challenging to obtain high-quality spectroscopy to detect a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center. Aided by the superb sensitivity and efficiency of KCWI at the Keck II Telescope, we have obtained spatially resolved stellar kinematics over a ∼100″ x 100″ contiguous field of H15A for this purpose. The velocity field exhibits a low-amplitude (∼20 km/s) rotation along a kinematic axis that is prominently misaligned from the photometric major axis, a strong indicator that H15A is triaxially shaped with unequal lengths for the three principal axes. Using 2500 observed kinematic constraints, we perform extensive calculations of stellar orbits with the triaxial Schwarzschild code, TriOS, and search over ~40,000 galaxy models to simultaneously determine the mass and intrinsic 3D shape parameters of H15A. We determine a ratio of p = 0.89 for the middle-to-long principal axes and q = 0.65 for the short-to-long principal axes. Our best estimate of the SMBH mass, M_BH = (2.16_{−0.18}^{+0.23})x10^{10} M⊙, makes H15A — along with NGC 4889 — the galaxy hosting the most massive SMBHs known in the local Universe. Both SMBHs lie significantly above the mean M_BH–σ scaling relation. Repeating the orbit modeling with the axisymmetrized version of TriOS produces worse fits to the KCWI kinematics and increases M_BH to (2.55 ± 0.20)x10^{10} M⊙, which is still significantly below the M_BH = (4.0 ± 0.8)x10^{10} M⊙ reported in a prior axisymmetric study of H15A. 

Abstract Tidal disruption events (TDEs) could be an important growth channel for massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. Theoretical work suggests that the observed active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in dwarf galaxies are predominantly TDE-powered. To assess this claim, we perform variability analyses on the dwarf-hosted AGNs detected in the 7 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South survey, with observations spanning ≈16 yr. Based on the spectral energy distribution modeling withx-cigale, we select AGNs hosted by dwarf galaxies (stellar mass below 10¹⁰M_⊙). We focus on X-ray sources with full-band detections, leading to a sample of 78 AGNs (0.122 ≤z≤ 3.515). We fit the X-ray light curves with a canonical TDE model oft^−5/3and a constant model. If the former outperforms the latter in fitting quality for a source, we consider the source as a potential TDE. We identify five potential TDEs, constituting a small fraction of our sample. Using true- and false-positive rates obtained from fitting models to simulated light curves, we perform Bayesian analysis to obtain the posterior of the TDE fraction for our sample. The posterior peaks close to zero (2.56%), and we obtain a 2σupper limit of 9.80%. Therefore, our result indicates that the observed AGNs in dwarf galaxies are not predominantly powered by TDEs. 

Dusty circumnuclear disks (CNDs) in luminous early-type galaxies (ETGs) show regular, dynamically cold molecular gas kinematics. For a growing number of ETGs, Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) CO imaging and detailed gas-dynamical modeling facilitate moderate-to-high precision black hole (BH) mass (M_BH) determinations. From the ALMA archive, we identified a subset of 26 ETGs with estimated M_BH/Msun ≳ 10^8 to a few x 10^9 and clean CO kinematics but that previously did not have sufficiently high-angular-resolution near-IR observations to mitigate dust obscuration when constructing stellar luminosity models. We present new optical and near-IR Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of this sample to supplement the archival HST data, detailing the sample properties and data-analysis techniques. After masking the most apparent dust features, we measure stellar surface-brightness profiles and model the luminosities using the multi-Gaussian expansion (MGE) formalism. Some of these MGEs have already been used in CO dynamical modeling efforts to secure quality M_BH determinations, and the remaining ETG targets here are expected to significantly improve the high-mass end of the current BH census, facilitating new scrutiny of local BH mass–host galaxy scaling relationships. We also explore stellar isophotal behavior and general dust properties, finding these CNDs generally become optically thick in the near-IR (A_H ≳ 1 mag). These CNDs are typically well aligned with the larger-scale stellar photometric axes, with a few notable exceptions. Uncertain dust impact on the MGE often dominates the BH mass error budget, so extensions of this work will focus on constraining CND dust attenuation. 

Abstract The three-dimensional intrinsic shape of a galaxy and the mass of the central supermassive black hole provide key insight into the galaxy’s growth history over cosmic time. Standard assumptions of a spherical or axisymmetric shape can be simplistic and can bias the black hole mass inferred from the motions of stars within a galaxy. Here, we present spatially resolved stellar kinematics of M87 over a two-dimensional 250″ × 300″ contiguous field covering a radial range of 50 pc–12 kpc from integral-field spectroscopic observations at the Keck II Telescope. From about 5 kpc and outward, we detect a prominent 25 km s⁻¹rotational pattern, in which the kinematic axis (connecting the maximal receding and approaching velocities) is 40° misaligned with the photometric major axis of M87. The rotational amplitude and misalignment angle both decrease in the inner 5 kpc. Such misaligned and twisted velocity fields are a hallmark of triaxiality, indicating that M87 is not an axisymmetrically shaped galaxy. Triaxial Schwarzschild orbit modeling with more than 4000 observational constraints enabled us to determine simultaneously the shape and mass parameters. The models incorporate a radially declining profile for the stellar mass-to-light ratio suggested by stellar population studies. We find that M87 is strongly triaxial, with ratios ofp= 0.845 for the middle-to-long principal axes andq= 0.722 for the short-to-long principal axes, and determine the black hole mass to be $({5.37}_{-0.25}^{+0.37}\pm 0.22)\times {10}^9{M}_{\odot }$, where the second error indicates the systematic uncertainty associated with the distance to M87. 

Abstract Recent studies have revealed a strong relation between the sample-averaged black hole (BH) accretion rate (BHAR) and star formation rate (SFR) among bulge-dominated galaxies—i.e., “lockstep” BH–bulge growth—in the distant universe. This relation might be closely connected to the BH–bulge mass correlation observed in the local universe. To further understand BH–bulge coevolution, we present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) CO(2–1) or CO(3–2) observations of seven star-forming bulge-dominated galaxies at z = 0.5–2.5. Using the ALMA data, we detect significant (>3 σ ) CO emission from four objects. For our sample of seven galaxies, we measure (or constrain with upper limits) their CO line fluxes and estimate their molecular gas masses ( M gas ). We also estimate their stellar masses ( M star ) and SFRs, by modeling their spectral energy distributions. Using these physical properties, we derive the gas depletion timescales ( τ dep ≡ M gas /SFR) and compare them with the bulge/BH growth timescales ( τ grow ≡ M star /SFR ∼ M BH /BHAR). Our sample generally has τ dep shorter than τ grow by a median factor of ≳4, indicating that the cold gas will be depleted before significant bulge/BH growth takes place. This result suggests that BH–bulge lockstep growth is mainly responsible for maintaining the mass relation, not creating it. We note that our sample is small and limited to z < 2.5; JWST and ALMA will be able to probe to higher redshifts in the near future. 

Abstract We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 2 observations of CO(2–1) emission from the circumnuclear disks in two early-type galaxies, NGC 1380 and NGC 6861. The disk in each galaxy is highly inclined (i∼ 75°), and the projected velocities of the molecular gas near the galaxy centers are ∼300 km s⁻¹in NGC 1380 and ∼500 km s⁻¹in NGC 6861. We fit thin disk dynamical models to the ALMA data cubes to constrain the masses of the central black holes (BHs). We created host galaxy models using Hubble Space Telescope images for the extended stellar mass distributions and incorporated a range of plausible central dust extinction values. For NGC 1380, our best-fit model yieldsM_BH= 1.47 × 10⁸M_⊙with a ∼40% uncertainty. For NGC 6861, the lack of dynamical tracers within the BH’s sphere of influence due to a central hole in the gas distribution precludes a precise measurement ofM_BH. However, our model fits require a value forM_BHin the range of (1–3) × 10⁹M_⊙in NGC 6861 to reproduce the observations. The BH masses are generally consistent with predictions from local BH–host galaxy scaling relations. Systematic uncertainties associated with dust extinction of the host galaxy light and choice of host galaxy mass model dominate the error budget of both measurements. Despite these limitations, the measurements demonstrate ALMA’s ability to provide constraints on BH masses in cases where the BH’s projected radius of influence is marginally resolved or the gas distribution has a central hole. 

Abstract 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 ratiosp=b/a= 0.902 ± 0.009 and $q=c/a={0.721}_{-0.010}^{+0.011}$, triaxiality parameterT= 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.