Browsing by Subject "surface brightness"

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    Is There A Black Hole In NGC 4382?
    (2011-11) Gultekin, Kayhan; Richstone, Douglas O.; Gebhardt, Karl; Faber, S. M.; Lauer, Tod R.; Bender, Ralf; Kormendy, John; Pinkney, Jason; Gebhardt, Karl
    We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph observations of the galaxy NGC 4382 (M85) and axisymmetric models of the galaxy to determine mass-to-light ratio (Gamma(V)) and central black hole mass (M-BH). We find Gamma(V) = 3.74 +/- 0.1 M-circle dot/L-circle dot and M-BH = 1.3(-1.2)(+5.2) x 10(7) M-circle dot at an assumed distance of 17.9 Mpc, consistent with no black hole. The upper limit, M-BH < 9.6 x 10(7) M-circle dot (2 sigma) or M-BH < 1.4 x 10(8)(3 sigma), is consistent with the current M-sigma relation, which predicts M-BH = 8.8 x 10(7) M-circle dot at sigma(e) = 182 km s(-1), but low for the current M-L relation, which predicts M-BH = 7.8 x 10(8) M-circle dot at L-V = 8.9 x 10(10) L-circle dot, (V). HST images show the nucleus to be double, suggesting the presence of a nuclear eccentric stellar disk, analogous to the Tremaine disk in M31. This conclusion is supported by the HST velocity dispersion profile. Despite the presence of this non-axisymmetric feature and evidence of a recent merger, we conclude that the reliability of our black hole mass determination is not hindered. The inferred low black hole mass may explain the lack of nuclear activity.
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    A New Calibration Of Galactic Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relations From B To K Bands, And A Comparison To LMC Relations
    (2007-12) Fouque, P.; Arriagada, P.; Storm, J.; Barnes, T. G.; Nardetto, N.; Merand, A.; Kervella, P.; Gieren, W.; Bersier, D.; Benedict, G. F.; McArthur, B. E.; Barnes, T. G.; Benedict, G. F.; McArthur, B. E.
    Context. The universality of the Cepheid period-luminosity (PL) relations has been under discussion since metallicity effects were assumed to play a role in the value of the intercept and, more recently, of the slope of these relations. Aims. The goal of the present study is to calibrate the Galactic PL relations in various photometric bands (from B to K) and to compare the results to the well-established PL relations in the LMC. Methods. We use a set of 59 calibrating stars, the distances of which are measured using five different distance indicators: Hubble Space Telescope and revised Hipparcos parallaxes, infrared surface brightness and interferometric Baade-Wesselink parallaxes, and classical Zero-Age-Main-Sequence-fitting parallaxes for Cepheids belonging to open clusters or OB stars associations. A detailed discussion of absorption corrections and projection factor to be used is given. Results. We find no significant difference in the slopes of the PL relations between LMC and our Galaxy. Conclusions. We conclude that the Cepheid PL relations have universal slopes in all photometric bands, not depending on the galaxy under study (at least for LMC and Milky Way). The possible zero-point variation with metal content is not discussed in the present work, but an upper limit of 18.50 for the LMC distance modulus can be deduced from our data.