[Previous] | [Session 4] | [Next]
E. Agol (Caltech)
Using the correlation between black hole mass and velocity dispersion of the host galaxy bulge in nearby galaxies, we estimate the masses of a dozen or so Seyfert galaxies. Due to uncertainties in the velocity dispersion measurements, the inferred masses are typically accurate to only ~ 0.5 dex. We compute the Eddington ratio, L/LEdd, assuming the emission is isotropic. We find that the Eddington ratio is between L/LEdd ~10-3-0.3 for Seyferts. Two narrow-line Seyfert 1s have L/LEdd ~ 10-2, not L ~LEdd as is frequently claimed in the literature. The radio galaxy 3C 120 appears to be super-Eddington at one epoch, indicating that it may be beamed.
This work was supported by NSF grant 96-19622 and a Chandra fellowship.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~agol/research.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: agol@pha.jhu.edu