A dynamical measure of the black hole mass in a quasar 11 billion years ago
Creators: name: Abuter, R.
name: Allouche, F.
name: Amorim, A.
name: Bailet, C.
name: Berdeu, A.
name: Berger, J. -P.
name: Berio, P.
name: Bigioli, A.
name: Boebion, O.
name: Bolzer, M. -L.
name: Bonnet, H.
name: Bourdarot, G.
name: Bourget, P.
name: Brandner, W.
name: Cao, Y.
name: Conzelmann, R.
name: Comin, M.
name: Clénet, Y.
name: Courtney-Barrer, B.
name: Davies, R.
name: Defrère, D.
name: Delboulbé, A.
name: Delplancke-Ströbele, F.
name: Dembet, R.
name: Dexter, J.
name: de Zeeuw, P. T.
name: Drescher, A.
name: Eckart, A.
name: Édouard, C.
name: Eisenhauer, F.
name: Fabricius, M.
name: Feuchtgruber, H.
name: Finger, G.
name: Schreiber, N. M. Förster
name: Garcia, P.
name: Lopez, R. Garcia
name: Gao, F.
name: Gendron, E.
name: Genzel, R.
name: Gil, J. P.
name: Gillessen, S.
name: Gomes, T.
name: Gonté, F.
name: Gouvret, C.
name: Guajardo, P.
name: Guieu, S.
name: Hackenberg, W.
name: Haddad, N.
name: Hartl, M.
name: Haubois, X.
name: Haußmann, F.
name: Heißel, G.
name: Henning, Th.
name: Hippler, S.
name: Hönig, S. F.
name: Horrobin, M.
name: Hubin, N.
name: Jacqmart, E.
name: Jocou, L.
name: Kaufer, A.
name: Kervella, P.
name: Kolb, J.
name: Korhonen, H.
name: Lacour, S.
name: Lagarde, S.
name: Lai, O.
name: Lapeyrère, V.
name: Laugier, R.
name: Bouquin, J. -B. Le
name: Leftley, J.
name: Léna, P.
name: Lewis, S.
name: Liu, D.
name: Lopez, B.
name: Lutz, D.
name: Magnard, Y.
name: Mang, F.
name: Marcotto, A.
name: Maurel, D.
name: Mérand, A.
name: Millour, F.
name: More, N.
name: Netzer, H.
name: Nowacki, H.
name: Nowak, M.
name: Oberti, S.
name: Ott, T.
name: Pallanca, L.
name: Paumard, T.
name: Perraut, K.
name: Perrin, G.
name: Petrov, R.
name: Pfuhl, O.
name: Pourré, N.
name: Rabien, S.
name: Rau, C.
name: Riquelme, M.
name: Robbe-Dubois, S.
name: Rochat, S.
name: Salman, M.
name: Sanchez-Bermudez, J.
name: Santos, D. J. D.
name: Scheithauer, S.
name: Schöller, M.
name: Schubert, J.
name: Schuhler, N.
name: Shangguan, J.
name: Shchekaturov, P.
name: Shimizu, T. T.
name: Sevin, A.
name: Soulez, F.
name: Spang, A.
name: Stadler, E.
name: Sternberg, A.
name: Straubmeier, C.
name: Sturm, E.
name: Sykes, C.
name: Tacconi, L. J.
name: Tristram, K. R. W.
name: Vincent, F.
name: von Fellenberg, S.
name: Uysal, S.
name: Widmann, F.
name: Wieprecht, E.
name: Wiezorrek, E.
name: Woillez, J.
name: Zins, G.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Tight relationships exist in the local universe between the central stellar properties of galaxies and the mass of their supermassive black hole. These suggest galaxies and black holes co-evolve, with the main regulation mechanism being energetic feedback from accretion onto the black hole during its quasar phase. A crucial question is how the relationship between black holes and galaxies evolves with time; a key epoch to probe this relationship is at the peaks of star formation and black hole growth 8-12 billion years ago (redshifts 1-3). Here we report a dynamical measurement of the mass of the black hole in a luminous quasar at a redshift of 2, with a look back time of 11 billion years, by spatially resolving the broad line region. We detect a 40 micro-arcsecond (0.31 pc) spatial offset between the red and blue photocenters of the H$α$ line that traces the velocity gradient of a rotating broad line region. The flux and differential phase spectra are well reproduced by a thick, moderately inclined disk of gas clouds within the sphere of influence of a central black hole with a mass of 3.2x10$^{8}$ solar masses. Molecular gas data reveal a dynamical mass for the host galaxy of 6x10$^{11}$ solar masses, which indicates an under-massive black hole accreting at a super-Eddington rate. This suggests a host galaxy that grew faster than the supermassive black hole, indicating a delay between galaxy and black hole formation for some systems.
description: 5 pages Main text, 8 figures, 2 tables, to be published in Nature, under embargo until 29 January 2024 16:00 (London)