Using Megamaser Disks to Probe Black Hole Accretion
Abstract
We examine the alignment between H_2O megamaser disks on sub-pc scales with circumnuclear disks and bars on <500 pc scales observed with HST/WFC3. The HST imaging reveals young stars, indicating the presence of gas. The megamaser disks are not well aligned with the circumnuclear bars or disks as traced by stars in the HST images. We speculate on the implications of the observed misalignments for fueling supermassive black holes in gas-rich spiral galaxies. In contrast, we find a strong preference for the rotation axes of the megamaser disks to align with radio continuum jets observed on >50 pc scales, in those galaxies for which radio continuum detections are available. Sub-arcsecond observations of molecular gas with ALMA will enable a more complete understanding of the interplay between circumnuclear structures.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1304.4254,
title = {Using Megamaser Disks to Probe Black Hole Accretion},
author = {Jenny E. Greene and Anil Seth and Mark den Brok and James A. Braatz and Christian Henkel and Ai-Lei Sun and Chien Y. Peng and Cheng-Yu Kuo and C. M. Violette Impellizzeri and K. Y. Lo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.4254},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Error in Figure 4 corrected, references added. 7 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal