Black-hole masses of distant quasars
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
A brief overview of the methods commonly used to determine or estimate
the black hole mass in quiescent or active galaxies is presented and it
is argued that the use of mass-scaling relations is both a reliable and
the preferred method to apply to large samples of distant quasars. The
method uses spectroscopic measurements of a broad emission-line width
and continuum luminosity and currently has a statistical 1 sigma
uncertainty in the absolute mass values of about a factor of 4.
Potentially, this accuracy can be improved in the future. When applied
to large samples of distant quasars it is evident that the black hole
masses are very large, of order 1 to 10 billion solar masses, even at
the highest redshifts of 4 to 6. The black holes must build up their
mass very fast in the early universe. Yet they do not grow much larger
than that: a maximum mass of about 10 billion solar masses is also
observed. Preliminary mass functions of active black holes are presented
for several quasar samples, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Finally, common concerns related to the application of the mass scaling
relations, especially for high redshift quasars, are briefly discussed.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Black Holes |
Number of pages | 23 |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Publication date | 2011 |
Pages | 150-172 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781107005532 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Series | Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium Series |
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Volume | 21 |
ID: 44215461