AGN disks and black holes on the weighting scales

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We exploit our formula for the gravitational potential of finite size, power-law disks to derive a general expression linking the mass of the black hole in active galactic nuclei (AGN), the mass of the surrounding disk, its surface density profile (through the power index s), and the differential rotation law. We find that the global rotation curve v(R) of the disk in centrifugal balance does not obey a power law of the cylindrical radius R (except in the confusing case s = −2 that mimics a Keplerian motion), and discuss the local velocity index. This formula can help to understand how, from position-velocity diagrams, mass is shared between the disk and the black hole. To this purpose, we checked the idea by generating a sample of synthetic data with different levels of Gaussian noise, added in radius. It turns out that, when observations are spread over a large radial domain and exhibit low dispersion (standard deviation σ ≲ 10% typically), the disk properties (mass and s-parameter) and black hole mass can be deduced from a non linear fit of kinematic data plotted on a (R,Rv2)-diagram. For σ ≳ 10%, masses are estimated fairly well from a linear regression (corresponding to the zeroth-order treatment of the formula), but the power index s is no longer accessible. We have applied the model to 7 AGN disks whose rotation has already been probed through water maser emission. For NGC 3393 and UGC 3789, the masses seem well constrained through the linear approach. For IC 1481, the power-law exponent s can even be deduced. Because the model is scale-free, it applies to any kind of star/disk system. Extension to disks around young stars showing deviation from Keplerian motion is thus straightforward.

AGN disks and black holes on the weighting scales

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